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.
Is “Glicked” The New “Barbenheimer”? “Wicked” and “Gladiator II” Hit Theater Screens
"Barbenheimer" was a phenomenon impossible to manufacture. But, more than a year later, that hasn't stopped people from trying to make "Glicked" — or even "Babyratu" — happen.
The counterprogramming of "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" in July 2023 hit a nerve culturally and had the receipts to back it up. Unlike so many things that begin as memes, it transcended its online beginnings. Instead of an either-or, the two movies ultimately complemented and boosted one another at the box office.
And ever since, moviegoers, marketers and meme makers have been trying to recreate that moment, searching the movie release schedule for odd mashups and sending candidates off into the social media void. Most attempts have fizzled (sorry, "Saw Patrol" ).
This weekend is perhaps the closest approximation yet as the Broadway musical adaptation "Wicked" opens Friday against the chest-thumping sword-and-sandals epic "Gladiator II." Two big studio releases (Universal and Paramount), with one-name titles, opposite tones and aesthetics and big blockbuster energy — it was already halfway there before the name game began: "Wickiator," "Wadiator," "Gladwick" and even the eyebrow raising "Gladicked" have all been suggested.
"'Glicked' rolls off the tongue a little bit more," actor Fred Hechinger said at the New York screening of "Gladiator II" this week. "I think we should all band around 'Glicked.' It gets too confusing if you have four or five different names for it."
As with "Barbenheimer," as reductive as it might seem, "Glicked" also has the male/female divide that make the fan art extra silly. One is pink and bright and awash in sparkles, tulle, Broadway bangers and brand tie-ins; The other is all sweat and sand, blood and bulging... Read More