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Home » Bring on the Bronies: Vimeo Strikes Deal With Cinedigm

Bring on the Bronies: Vimeo Strikes Deal With Cinedigm

When Vimeo launched a few years back, its decision to take the quality road set it apart. Vimeo would be the site that would set itself apart with its high bar for the quality of its service, including top video encoding quality, and the high level of its users’ work.

Backed by Barry Dillar’s deep-pocketed IAC, taking the high road was a singular concern. Finally, the Internet had a company that was willing to promote quality documentaries, high-end personal projects, Siggraph animations and other premium work that had no big-time champion on the ‘net.

Well, you knew that couldn’t last long.

Ready for My Little Pony videos, Brony lovers? That’s right, the Chelsea-based company has announced that it’s Vimeo on Demand streaming service will be showing love for the Pony — as well as many thousands of other videos — in a new agreement with Cinedigm, one of the largest content distributors in the country.

Sam Toles, vp of Content Acquisitions and Business Development, Vimeo says that the company is “particularly excited” about using technology such as an embeddable player to “connect the passionate ‘Brony’ community directly with ‘Rainbow Rocks.”.

Okay. That Pony-Brony shot was a little unfair. You can still visit and promote your work on Vimeo’s original site, which will stand separate from the streaming world. And Cinedigm isn’t all about hustling anime Ponies by any means. Nope, as the company notes on its site, it handles “next-gen Indies from Flatiron Film Company”, flicks from the Sundance Institute and Tribeca Films. You’ll also find a wide range of content from top shelf suppliers including National Geographic, Discovery, Scholastic, WWE, NFL, Shout Factory, Hallmark, Jim Henson and more.

Under the new partnership, Cinedigm plans to release a number of films “exclusively and non-exclusively” on Vimeo on Demand over the next year. The two companies will also create joint marketing plans that will promote the titles.

In a prepared statement, Sam Toles, VP of Content Acquisitions and Business Development at Vimeo said “As the largest independent distributor of content in the United States, Cinedigm controls an impressive catalog of over 52,000 films and television series from which we’ll curate titles for our fast growing, passionate audiences.”

You see, they had to try something besides art, because the competition is on fire.

The success of Netflix, Amazon and other new services has made video streaming and distribution more inviting than ever. Right now, the once desired for media future built around wall-sized TVs in suburban living rooms isn’t very attractive anymore. The content industry sees such big screen TV watching, fairly or unfairly,  as the bailiwick of stodgy cable companies stuck to delivering shows to aging baby boomers in empty family rooms.

Vimeo wants a piece of the small screen, mobile future watching Millennials, so reaching out to create deals is a bet on capturing a place in OTT. That’s the quickly developing market of ‘over-the-top’ video coming in over the ‘net to smartphones and tablets. That’s the one place where media companies can find real opportunity for growing their bottom line.

Google is a bellwether company; it’s now pushing YouTube as the place for all those traditional TV advertising dollars to migrate. The Google Preferred advertising platform creates channels for brands so they can place ads against the top 5 percent of the most popular content in areas like entertainment and food.

Vimeo has never made much money, at least compared to huge players like Google and Facebook, or even the streaming services of Netflix and Amazon. But Dillar is smart about making money online; IAC owns the very profitable dating site Match.com, is a part owner of the fast-growing Tinder mobile dating app, and has search sites like About.com and Ask.com that are profitable, if not wildly so. Shacking up in the same company with those sites might not seem like the ideal match for Vimeo. But dating and search pay a good part of IAC’s freight. It’s heartening to see a big player like IAC take time to grow a video site that truly does take the high road, in the end.

Vimeo will also offer subscriptions, for those who want to keep out those pesky ads. That’s in the works for Vimeo by 2015 according to an interview with Vimeo CEO Kerry Trainor on Re/code. CBS is already offering subscriptions, while YouTube is said to be planning to go that way too, along with HBO.

Getting your video over the ‘net is the way the content world is going. Vimeo will be there in one form or another.

About Dan Ochiva

New York City-based journalist and NYCPPNEWS founder Dan Ochiva writes and consults on film, video, and digital media technology.

Community & Partner Links

How Sony’s New Virtual Sound Technology Can Change How We Hear Films

Kami Asgar and Jessica Parks are post-production heavyweights who work with major studios, namely Sony. As a sound designer (Asgar) and as a post executive (Parks), their collective resume touches on everything from Apocalypto to Grandma’s Boy to Venom.

Parks has recently shifted her focus from supervisor to hands-on sound design, and we talk about how it’s never too late to pivot on your career path and find the thing you love doing wherever you are in life.

Click on this link to read the rest of the article on No Film School’s site.

U.K. Extends COVID Insurance Scheme; Distributes $21 Million in Cinema Grants

The U.K.’s insurance scheme for film and television has been extended until April.

Known as the Film and TV Production Restart Scheme, the groundbreaking £500 million ($676 million) fund assures productions that they’ll receive financial support in case of COVID-related losses. The program has so far accepted 100 qualifying productions.

To read the full article in Variety, click on this link. 

Film Commish announces date for production restart

In her December 18, 2020 news update, MOME Commissioner Anne del Castillo announced that the Film Office is now accepting permit applications for production activity that begins on July 27th.

She also announced awards now (Awkwafina) and more. To read all of the Film Commish’s bloggy sort of news column, click here.

Stimulus Offers $15 Billion in Relief for Struggling Arts Venues

The coronavirus relief package that Congressional leaders agreed to this week includes grant money that many small proprietors described as a last hope for survival.

For the music venue owners, theater producers and cultural institutions that have suffered through the pandemic with no business, the coronavirus relief package that Congress passed on Monday night offers the prospect of aid at last.

To read the full article on The New York Times’ site, click here.

If you want to start production, here’s the latest news from the Mayor’s Office

Phase 4 production guidance is available on the Film Permit website. All production activity, whether it requires a Film Permit or not, must comply with New York Forward Industry Guidance.

For more information see, please refer to the State Department of Health’s Interim Guidance for Media Production During the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency. Please review the guidelines and FAQ before submitting permit applications. The Film Office is operating remotely, so please allow additional time for Film Permit processing.

The above paragraphs contain links to the various FAQ – just mouse over the relevant words.

Nikon to Stop Making Cameras in Japan

Nikon has fallen on hard times as of late as its camera sales have cratered, and now there’s a new indicator of how dire its financial situation is: the company is reportedly pulling the plug on making cameras in Japan after over 70 years of doing so.

To read the full article on Petapixel’s site, click here.

NVIDIA Uses AI to Slash Bandwidth on Video Calls

NVIDIA Research has invented a way to use AI to dramatically reduce video call bandwidth while simultaneously improving quality

What the researchers have achieved has remarkable results: by replacing the traditional h.264 video codec with a neural network, they have managed to reduce the required bandwidth for a video call by an order of magnitude. In one example, the required data rate fell from 97.28 KB/frame to a measly 0.1165 KB/frame – a reduction to 0.1% of required bandwidth.

To read the rest of this article on Petapixel, click this link.

 

 

 

Union Health Plan Dodges Film Workers’ Suit Over Virus Relief

Law360 (October 9, 2020, 5:22 PM EDT) — The Motion Picture Industry Health Plan’s board can’t be sued under ERISA for allegedly flouting its duties when it relaxed plan rules in response to COVID-19, a California federal judge has ruled, nixing a proposed class action filed by two cinematographers who still couldn’t qualify for benefits.

In an order entered Thursday, U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner granted the board of directors’ motion to dismiss Greg Endries and Dee Nichols’ Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit accusing board members of breaching their duty to treat all plan participants fairly.

Endries and Nichols, members of Local 600 of the International Cinematographers Guild, said in July that the board left them and others “out in the cold” in its attempts to address the problems COVID-19 caused for plan participants.

But Judge Klausner agreed with the board’s contention that the case, which alleged a fiduciary breach, should be tossed because plan administrators don’t act as fiduciaries when they amend health care plans.

Read the full article on the Law360 site by clicking here.

Russo Brothers Received Close to $50 Million From Saudi Bank

Anthony Russo and Joseph Russo photographed at the PMC Studio in Los Angeles for the Variety Playback Podcast.

The Russo brothers, directors of the all-time top grossing film “Avengers: Endgame,” quietly secured a roughly $50 million cash infusion for their production company AGBO from Saudi Arabia earlier this year, multiple sources tell Variety.

In a deal brokered and closed at the beginning of the pandemic, the Russos received the investment from an undisclosed Saudi bank in exchange for a minority stake in the brothers’ Los Angeles-based shop.

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