Comcast Corp. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. said Tuesday they are teaming up to introduce a video-on-demand channel featuring action movies and TV shows.
Comcast, the country’s largest cable operator, already has a hit with another genre-specific VOD channel and Web site, FEARnet, which features horror movies and thrillers, in collaboration with Lionsgate and Sony Pictures Television. FEARnet is also available on mobile phones.
Philadelphia-based Comcast said the “Impact” channel will have 25 to 30 titles every month – and about 200 a year. But it will tap into MGM’s library of over 1,000 action movies and TV shows, including many in high-definition format.
Movies include those in the James Bond franchise, Rocky and RoboCop. Programming will be grouped into categories such as thrillers, crime, war films, martial arts, westerns and espionage. Most movies will be free.
MGM said titles will have similar timing as those released on other pay-TV providers, which means they will come after DVD rentals.
Programming is slated to appeal to the demographic of men aged 18 to 49, and the channel will be partly supported by advertising, the companies said. A Web site is under development.
The channel is being rolled out market-by-market this week to Comcast customers. Los Angeles-based MGM said it is in talks with other pay-TV providers for carriage.
Last month, Comcast announced a deal with Time Warner Cable Inc. to carry FEARnet. Comcast gets licensing fees as well as advertising revenue for the channel. The nearly two-year-old channel is already available through cable operators Cox Communications Inc. and Insight Communications Co. as well as Verizon Communications Inc.’s FiOS service.
In the first quarter of 2008, FEARnet video on demand views were up 40 percent from a year ago. In June, PC Magazine named the FEARnet Web site among the best for movie fans.
Comcast owns 20 percent of privately held MGM.
Denzel Washington, Michael J. Fox and Bono Among Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipients
In the East Room of the White House on a particularly frigid Saturday afternoon, President Joe Biden bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 19 of the most famous names in politics, sports, entertainment, civil rights, LGBTQ+ advocacy and science.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton aroused a standing ovation from the crowd as she received her medal. Clinton was accompanied to the event by her husband former President Bill Clinton, daughter Chelsea Clinton and grandchildren. Democratic philanthropist George Soros and actor-director Denzel Washington were also awarded the nation's highest civilian honor in a White House ceremony.
"For the final time as president I have the honor bestowing the Medal of Freedom, our nation's highest civilian honor, on a group of extraordinary, truly extraordinary people, who gave their sacred effort, their sacred effort, to shape the culture and the cause of America," Biden said in his opening remarks.
"Let me just say to each of you, thank you, thank you, thank you for all you've done to help this country," Biden said Saturday.
Four medals were awarded posthumously. They went to George W. Romney, who served as both a Michigan governor and secretary of housing and urban development; former Attorney General and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy; Ash Carter, a former secretary of defense; and Fannie Lou Hamer, who founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and laid the groundwork for the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
Kennedy is father to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for health and human services secretary. Biden said, "Bobby is one of my true political heroes. I love and I miss him dearly."
Romney is the father of former Utah Republican Sen. Mitt Romney, one of... Read More