Movielink was a web

World Wide Web

The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...

-based video on demand

Video on demand

Video on Demand or Audio and Video On Demand are systems which allow users to select and watch/listen to video or audio content on demand...

 (VOD) and electronic sell-through

Electronic Sell-Through

Electronic Sell-Through describes a method of media distribution whereby consumers pay a one-time fee to download a digital media file for storage on a hard drive. Although EST is often described as a transaction that grants content "ownership" to the consumer, the content may become unusable...

 (EST) service offering movies, TV shows and other videos for rental or purchase. First available on November 11, 2002, Movielink drew its content offerings from the libraries of Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...

, Sony Pictures Entertainment

Sony Pictures Entertainment

Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc. is the television and film production/distribution unit of Japanese multinational technology and media conglomerate Sony...

, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...

, Universal Studios

Universal Studios

Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....

, Warner Bros. Entertainment

Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...

, Buena Vista Pictures

Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group

Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, Inc. is a corporation which develops scripts and oversees theatrical production for The Walt Disney Company's production companies and imprints. The Group, one of Hollywood's major film studios, is based at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California...

 (including Miramax

Miramax Films

Miramax Films is an American entertainment company known for distributing independent and foreign films. For its first 14 years the company was privately owned by its founders, Bob and Harvey Weinstein...

), Twentieth Century Fox, Koch Entertainment

Koch Entertainment

Koch Entertainment was a music, film and television distribution company. It was purchased by E1 Entertainment in 2005 and now operates under the name E1 Entertainment.-History:The company began in 1975 as Koch International...

 and others on a non-exclusive basis. While it was only available to users in the United States, it was the first company in the world to offer legally downloadable movies from major studios.

In general, movies obtained through Movielink could only be viewed on the computer or a TV connected to the computer that the movie was purchased from. However, consumer electronics devices such as the Xbox 360

Xbox 360

The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...

 game console also allowed users to more easily view these digital media on a traditional TV screen. Also, Movielink had deals with certain set top box companies to offer its movies downloaded directly to people's TV's (including AT&T's Homezone product). Experimentation with other business model

Business model

A business model describes the rationale of how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value...

s was underway, including a feature which allowed users to purchase, download, and burn a DVD of a selected film.

Movielink used digital rights management

Digital rights management

Digital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...

 software from Microsoft

Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...

 and RealNetworks

RealNetworks

RealNetworks, Inc. is a provider of Internet media delivery software and services based in Downtown Seattle, Washington, United States. The company is the creator of RealAudio, a compressed audio format; RealVideo, a compressed video format; RealPlayer, a media player; RealDownloader, a download...

 to protect their content. Consequently, compatibility was limited to Intel-based computers

Wintel

Wintel is a portmanteau of Windows and Intel, referring to personal computers using Intel x86 compatible processors running Microsoft Windows...

 running Microsoft Windows 2000, XP,or Vista and Windows Media Player

Windows Media Player

Windows Media Player is a media player and media library application developed by Microsoft that is used for playing audio, video and viewing images on personal computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system, as well as on Pocket PC and Windows Mobile-based devices...

 version 9 or later.

They offered daily weekday specials for under 99 cents, and certain films for half price every week.

On June 1, 2006, it was revealed that Movielink's initial investors--a joint venture of Paramount, Sony, MGM, Universal, and Warner Bros--were looking to sell the company. This came shortly after numerous studios announced their intent to work with a range of potential Movielink competitors, such as Amazon.com

Amazon.com

Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...

, Apple Computer

Apple Computer

Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation that designs and markets consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers. The company's best-known hardware products include the Macintosh line of computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad...

, BitTorrent Inc.

BitTorrent Inc.

BitTorrent, Inc., headquartered in San Francisco, California, is a privately held American company that is responsible for the ongoing development of the BitTorrent peer-to-peer protocol, as well as the ongoing development of µTorrent and BitTorrent Mainline, two clients for that protocol.Today,...

, Jaman

Jaman

Jaman is a company that offers view on demand of media on the internet. It allows viewing on a variety of platforms via a downloadable P2P client. It specializes in foreign films...

 and Microsoft

Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...

 Xbox

Xbox

The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...

.

On August 8th, 2007, Blockbuster purchased Movielink. According to the 8-K filing by Blockbuster, the total purchase price was $6.6 million. The deal included content agreements thus giving Blockbuster access to one of the largest libraries of downloadable movies. With the acquisition of Movielink, Blockbuster was positioned for media content delivery in brick and mortar

Brick and mortar

Brick and mortar in its most simplest usage is used to describe the physical presence of a building or other structure...

 rentals, DVD-by-mail, and online delivery of movies.

On December 16th, 2008 the Movielink website was shut down. The site was re-directed to the Blockbuster home page. All customers were notified 30 days in advance that all movies rented or purchased prior to the shutdown date must be downloaded by no later than 12/15/08 11:59 P.M. Pacific Time.

The domain name now redirects to Blockbuster's downloading service, which also features titles from IFC Films

IFC Films

IFC Films is an American film distribution company based in New York, owned by AMC Networks. It distributes independent films and documentaries under the IFC Films, Sundance Selects and IFC Midnight. It operates the IFC Center....

.

External links

• Comparison of video on demand services
• Review of Movielink on Extremetech.com