Epix Unveils Online HD Movie Service

Epix, the new premium channel from Viacom/Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/Lionsgate, has upped its commitment to online content by promising to deliver 3,000 movies to subscribers through EpixHD.com.

Epix Megaplex will be a high-speed web option available to Epix’s distributors and will include many films which have never before been digitized, including selections of crime dramas, mob movies and musicals. Service is expected to be able to stream at up to 720p resolutions (using around ~3MB/sec).

Epix Chief Digital Officer Emil Rensing contended in a phone interview last week that the collection will be the largest HD film library online, and that combining it with the company’s already announced selection of new releaseswould give the service a better online movie offering than anyone else, including Netflix. Since Netflix is already online with over 17,000 titles (including individual television series episodes), we'll have to remain skeptical on the facts.

All along, Epix has claimed its web component will match its TV channel, but Megaplex will in fact give web users access to far more than could ever be aired on TV. However, distributors may opt not to make Megaplex part of their Epix offering, and indeed the service’s sole announced distributor, Verizon, has not yet signed on to make Megaplex available for its FiOS customers, said Rensing. We also have no confirmation yet as to whether audio will remain 2 channel stereo or graduate to some flavor of Dolby Digital surround.

Rensing said Megaplex would launch in the first quarter of 2010, and have at least 3,000 titles by the second quarter. The next step for the online service will be developing recommendations, collaborative filtering and other methods for parsing all the choices. Let's hope for the best and also that the involved fees won't make this another cost-prohibitive streaming media service that doesn't get its feet far off the ground.