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August 15, 2007
IFC First Take's next step: video-on-demand takes off
Is IFC's focus shifting to VOD? "A theatrical release of Mark Palansky's Penelope, the Toronto '06 premiere starring Reese Witherspoon which had been scheduled to open this Friday, was recently dropped. With no larger-budget releases on its longterm slate, IFC is instead focusing on its emerging IFC First Take label that simultaneously releases independent and foreign language films in theaters" and video-on-demand," writes Eugene Hernandez of movies like Hou Hsiao-hsien's Flight of the Red Balloon, Ken Loach's The Wind That Shakes The Barley and Joe Swanberg's Hannah Takes The Stairs. "Asked to explain the apparent strategy shift, [IFC topper Jonathan] Sehring added that even outside the studio specialty divisions, the landscape for larger independent releases has changed... "There are more distributors for films in the 5, 15, 20 million budget range," noted Sehring. But, Hernandez reports that IFC First Take's reach of 40 million cable viewers nationwide is working. "The growth of this service... from zero to forty million in about a year is pretty much unparalleled," Rainbow spokesperson Matthew Frankel told indieWIRE... While not releasing specific download numbers for the First Take films, he noted, "And in regard to the films, we are very pleased with the kind of demand for this small independent film -- not only are these films available in Des Moines, Iowa but people are actually buying them in Des Moines, Iowa."
Posted by Ray Pride at August 15, 2007 04:38 PM
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