VMIX rolling out live, on-demand video rental solutions for Facebook

Online video platform VMIX is rolling out what it calls the first complete solution for live and on-demand video rental, giving studios and content distributors a turn-key solution for use on social networking platforms like Facebook.

VMIX Social allows media companies to showcase and rent rights-managed video on Facebook fan pages, boosting media sales through their social networks. Once rented, consumers have the option to watch the video immediately in Facebook, or later on a smartphone, tablet, computer or Internet-connected TV.

"We see this as a natural evolution of things we already do with platforms," VMIX's co-founder and CTO Greg Kostello told FierceOnlineVideo. "We've been delivering video a long time, and this is pretty unique."

Kostello said VMIX Social gives studios the ability to customize promotion and to offer niche groups of ardent movie fans exclusives; nd, he said, the depth of Facebook's audience is extraordinary and creates opportunities for content providers. 

"It's all about location," he said. "Facebook is the number one destination on the web, with more than 600 million consumers connecting to brands and products by the minute. Over 700,000 businesses have pages on Facebook, with top companies supporting a network of over 64 million Facebook fans and growing. We intend to deliver the very best tools for video social commerce into that market."

Kostello said key components of the VMIX Social product include:

  • Integration with social-commerce engines to keep transactions and consumers in Facebook, encouraging easy and wide social distribution;
  • Live and on-demand video streaming direct to Facebook fan pages and any Internet-connected device;
  • Fine control of video rights management and distribution, and,
  • Interactive video templates and galleries for promoting content in Facebook.

"VMIX brings rock-solid media experience," said Kostello, "enabling 10 million consumers over the past five years to watch more than 50 million videos a year on their computers, phones and other devices. We know the industry is ready for this and we are prepared to deliver."

VMIX initially will roll out VMIX Social on PCs and mobile devices, and later on Internet-connected TVs, said Bill Curci, VP of marketing. He declined to name the studios and distributors VMIX was working with currently, but said VMIX expected to have several properties announce in the next month.

Kostello, meanwhile, said VMIX Social was a major play for the company, one it expects to pay dividends.

"We're very excited about the size of the opportunity," he said. "It's big. And it's in its early days so people are reluctant to say ‘this concept is ready to take over the world.' " But, he said, one look at the size of Facebook, is enough to give you an idea about the potential the company sees in the product.

Social networking has increasingly become a focus for movie studios. Warner Bros., for example, Monday announced it was expanding the scope of its video-on-demand trial with Facebook, adding five additional movies to the single offering it announced last week.

The Time Warner property also Monday was rumored to be in advanced negotiations to acquire movie review site Flixster for a price tag in the neighborhood of $90 million after Yahoo, which also had been pursuing Flixster, dropped out.

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