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UPDATES Epix Free Preview Weekends Through Thanksgiving
The saying in Hollywood is, "Never let them see you sweat". But Showtime CEO Matt Blank is rattled by the launch of EPIX -- that new premium entertainment service owned by Viacom, Paramount, Lionsgate and what's left of MGM. So much so that he’s instructed his marketing team to buy Showtime online advertisements on Google every time someone searches for Epix information. How funny is that? It's not just that EPIX is a rival to Showtime. 
It's also that Showtime lost those Epix studios after playing hardball on the license feesd, which totaled about $300 million in 2008. Showtime has been desperately trying to fill the void in its movie lineup. To date, EPIX has just one distribution pact with Verizon Communications Inc's FiOS TV service, which means it's only available to 2.5 million households, but the service is in advanced talks with numerous distribution partners. Sources tell me that EchoStar’s Dish Network, which reaches more than 13 million satellite television customers, is the most likely to announce they will be carrying EPIX.
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I have FIOS, and EPIX has been pretty good so far, showing a lot of movies I have been wanting to see. Their promo crawl does tend to be distracting, like when Starz does their free promo.
A truly spectacular blunder on the part of Matt Blank. How can you be a movie channel and not have movies. Unless you’re a channel dedicated to series programming. If that’s the strategy, and it could be, the buying of the Google space i and then not so spectacular a blunder as opposed to some short term pain and a little embarrassment. However, that Google space is first inexpensive and secondly, in the world of turning over every stone possible to find viewers, a smart play in the overall marketing strategy of the channel– they’re reminding someone who is sampling Epix that a real channel, with unique original programming exists. This one stil has to play out more but with every Blockbuster that closes I’m reminded of Netflix and On Demand and PPV and the fact that spending a ton of money on movies actually may not be the best strategy in 2010 and Matt Blanks blunder may prove to be the smartest decision of all.
Original programming is the only reason to subscribe to Showtime. Netflix handles my movie viewing.
I thought Showtime and HBO were all about original programming now?
Really unbelievable that anyone would subscribe to Showtime since they don’t show or have rights to any studio movies anymore. Every time I call my cable provider looking to see what they’re offering up for free, they give me months of Showtime for free… and yet even with my dvr there’s nothing worth recording.
I see Showtime playing more offense than defense here. All of the major cable providers have pretty much told Epix to buzz off and that they won’t add them at all. Without multi-casting channels or any kind of spotlight programming (launching with concerts? That worked…when Showtime launched in 1978) or even minor sports like MMA, they won’t be long at all.
Compare this to the attempt by the Minnesota Twins when they tried to launch their own sports network in 2003 with high school sports, Twins baseball and outdoors shows in the Upper Midwest. They asked too much, had too much crud on outside of the Twins games, and nobody wanted them because there was no need at all for a separate network to air sports in Minnesota. Four months later the channel dies and all that programming goes back to FSN Minnesota and nobody ever remembers Victory Sports One.
I’m sure Showtime is just biding the time until these three studios realize they might as well be premiering these movies on CB radio for the number of subscribers they get, are stuck forever at less than 15 million homes, and go right back to Showtime with their tail between their legs. That, and for all the people searching for Epix, they’re paying literal pennies for Google ads that they know won’t return much because of a lack of searches.
I used Epix.com during the free period, laptop hooked up to an LCD worked just fine, better than even when I use Netflix.
Epix will do just fine it will take awhile, I had Showtime for one month on Dish Network, the original programming was crap, so I cancelled it and Dish refunded the months fee. First Verizon Fios, next Dish, everything takes time even Showtime and HBO weren’t built in a year.
And what about the simple and obvious retribution & revenge angle of Blank trying to systematically kill off a competitive biz run by so many ex-Showtime execs. Could Dexter be Blank’s alter ego?
Not true that there is nothing worth watching on Showtime. There is no funnier show on television than Weeds, and Californication and Dexter are the equal of anything on HBO right now. The L Word was a fine show too. When they put their minds to it, they come up with good stuff. Their problem has always been penetration, they were second out of the gate and never caught up. HBO has drastically reduced its studio feature film content as well, in favor of its own productions. It can be done, and successfully.
tried searching for epix, and it’s true: showtime google ads appear. hilarious. and sad (for showtime.)
searchers obviously doesn’t understand solid SEO/SEM marketing, Good job Showtime!
i can’t say what matt blank was attempting with mgm and lionsgate, but playing hardball with paramount on the expiration of their deal with showtime was all about making CBS look like the hardass achievers, and making the viacom/paramount crowd look like pansies in front of sumner redstone.
just like pulling all cbs productions off the paramount lot, moonves and his cbs crowd are all about one-upmanship and not so much about value creation.
will it work? maybe someday, but it hasn’t paid off yet. i don’t know a single person who is rooting for cbs to do well.
Amen. Both companies keep replicating each other.
Paramount vs CBS Films
Epix vs. Showtime
There’s nothing unusual about targeting competitor keywords with Google AdWords. That’s a common, common, common practice in just about any industry. Not a big deal.
Epix hired Laverne McKinnon to develop original programming, so that’s nothing to worry about. Showtime has Bob Greenblatt and McKinnon is a soft lightweight that doesn’t know her stuff. She lacks the talent and imagination to come up with the sort of innovative stuff cable needs. She’s just some “Ghost Whisperer” champion that coasted on CBS auto pilot through countless “CSI” and “NCIS” and “BYOB” shows.
Still unclear on what epix truly has to offer that’s unique. At least showtime and hbo have original series.
In my humble opinion, Showtime is the best TV network when you look at their shows which are in a word, wonderful.
THE TOP THEN IN TV:
1. Showtime
2. FX
3. CBS
4. HBO
5. ABC
6. USA
7. SYFY
8. FOX
9. TNT
10 AMC* (*Just two series but they are both great)
Epix is no good!
I’ve the Epix channel through my Verizon Fios service. I’ve sampled a few movies over the weekend and was very disappointed to learn that much like HBO, Epix chooses to cut some of their cinemascope-shot movies from their original 1:2.35 aspect ratio to the 1:1.77 full-screen format.
All four Indiana Jones movies were mutilated in this way!
It is shameful that in an age where full-frame (pan and scan) DVDs are almost never picked up by consumers, and this format does not even exist with Blu-Ray discs, that channels such as Epix and HBO still inflict those botched versions of movies onto their viewers.
Eran, ee@therealdeal.com
With $300 million to spend, why don’t they produce 150 $2 million high-concept original movies? Sure as he’ll works for Syfy, their Saturday night low-budget originals tend to generate the highest ratings of the week.
Bingo! Now that Showtime is part of CBS, the newly minted CBS Films will start releasing features which will eventually end up on Showtime.
And don’t forget, Showtime has a deal with Summit so all the Twilight movies will be on Showtime.
It’s a smart move by Blank and Moonves.
It’s the studios that provide the full screen versions to the channels. Complain to them!
That’s not correct — the studios provide the movies in this format because the pay tv networks demand them that way. They don’t want the top/bottom black bars (they think their customers don’t want them). Occassionally, they are forced to take 2:35 movies because certain directors have the clout to demand it. But otherwise, the pay networks dictate the formats they receive from the studios.
Actually its called Competative Keyword Targeting and is a very effective advertising tool utilized all searc advertisers that know what they are doing.
Please understand what your writing about before you bash a company.
Thank you
To DD120: Bullshit!
if MGM HD Channel, HD Net Movies, TCM, Showtime and others can buy and show movis in their original un-botched theatrical version so can and should HBO and Epix.
Are you telling me that I -the consumer – can go to BestBuy and choose if I want to purchase a widescreen or a P&S DVD of the same movie, but Epix that spend millions of dollars don’t have that option to choose what format they want to buy?!
Come on!
They only buy full screen because they don’t want to deal with clients complaining about black bars on their screen. I’ve no better theory about why would they show edited-to-fit-your-screen type movies.
Eran
The only premium (pay movie) channel that is delivering a genuinely high fidelity HD image is HDnet Movies. They never macro-block, no matter how much motion occurs in the scene. Even heavy-weights like HBO and SHO HD plexes have pictures that deteriorate to crap during high motion content. I’m on FiOS, which claims to never re-compress or statmux. Unless Verizon is lying, the issue must be crappy feeds from HBO, SHO, STARZ and the others.
Why can’t these large operations manage to deliver a high quality feed to FiOS? It is just fear of content piracy? Or, are they tailoring their feeds to broken-down (capacity limited) distribution systems, like Comcast and the DBS satellite guys?
As consumers we shell out big bucks for high quality, low-latency 1080 displays, and then the pay networks send us content that looks like they use youtube for encoding and playout. (Sometimes not even youtube quality: see IFC-HD.)