Paramount Offers 'Transformers' from Own Streaming Site
|
|
CREDIT: Paramount Studios |
Paramount Pictures has made its “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” available for streaming direct to anyone who stumbles upon its Transformers site. Paramount’s experiment marks the first time a major film studio has cut the middlemen such as Netflix, Vudu and iTunes.
The new site offers the movie in standard definition for $3.99 and HD for $4.99. Not sure if your computer can display HD? Paramount has included a quick test to tell you; you can stream the trailer and see either an SD or HD watermark.
Once you’ve set up an account, you must watch the purchased video within 30 days. Once begun, you have 48 hours to finish the movie and you can watch it as many times as you’d like within the 48-hour window. One concurrent stream is allowed per account and you must have Silverlight installed in your browser. HD is available for Windows users only.
While $5 to stream a movie may sound pricey, Paramount’s price is equal to Vudu, a popular pay-per-stream site. The movie is not available to stream from either iTunes or Netflix. Could this be the wave of the future? Movie studios stand to benefit from bigger profit margins, but services like Netflix currently have a far larger customer base.
