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  • Viacom's Epix Lands National Distribution Deal With Dish Network

    Leena Rao

    Leena Rao is currently a Senior Editor for TechCrunch. She recently finished graduate school at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where she studied business journalism and videography. From 2004 to 2007, she helped lead Congresswoman Carloyn Maloney’s community outreach and relations efforts in New York City. She graduated from Columbia University in 2003, where she was... → Learn More

    Monday, April 19th, 2010

    Epix, the movie and entertainment streaming network that works across your TV, computer, and mobile phone, has landed another cable deal: Dish Network. In the past few months, the network also landed a deal with Cox Communications, Charter Communications and Mediacom Communications. We wrote about the service here and here. Specific terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

    Jointly backed by Viacom, Lionsgate, Paramount, and MGM, EPIX provides access to over 15,000 movie titles. The company originally signed a deal with Verizon FIOS, which was somewhat limiting considering only some 2 million people use Verizon’s cable service. Epix is getting a much greater userbase with the deal with Dish Network, which has more than 14.1 million customers around the nation. This is also the first national distribution deal for EPIX.

    Cox brings more clients to EPIX with its base of 6.2 million customers, which including 2.7 million digital cable subscribers. Mediacom, the 7th largest cable provider in the U.S., will bring with it a base of 1.3 million subscribers in 22 states. And Carter, which is the fourth largest cable provider in the U.S. will bring EPIX to 5.7 million homes by May 2010. With all six distribution deals, the company expects to reach 30 million homes.

    One of our main issues with EPIX was that it was tied to Verizon FIOS but it appears that the company is steadily adding more cable providers to distribute its service. Unfortunately, the platform offers a sliver of available movies out there, since it only includes the movies available through the studios that are backing the company. But EPIX is useful because it transcends the TV and your computer and it’s fairly easy to use. EPIX also is creating original content; the company announced earlier this year that it would be creating a comedy series on Silicon Valley, based on Dan Lyons’ Fake Steve Jobs persona.

    Now that EPIX has scored deals with Dish, Cox and Charter, I’m sure the company is looking to cross Time Warner and Comcast off the list.

    Company: EPIX
    Website: epixhd.com
    Launch Date: 2008

    EPIX, a joint venture between Viacom Inc., its Paramount Pictures unit, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM) and Lionsgate, is a next-generation premium entertainment channel, video-on-demand and online service launched on October 30, 2009. With access to more than 15,000 motion pictures spanning the vast libraries of its partners and other studios, EPIX provides a powerful entertainment experience with more feature films on demand and online and more HD movies than any other service. It is the only premium service providing...

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