TORONTO – It’s been a year of enormous growth for The Movie Network on demand, the company announced today.
In its inaugural year just completed, TMNOD has proven widely successful, recording exceptional ratings in both subscriber adoption and satisfaction, exceeding all expectations, says the press release.
The service lets existing TMN subscribers view most of the pay service’s content whenever they like, at no additional charge. The earnings, for the service and the cable operator, come via the “significant decline in our churn rate,” said Domenic Vivolo, senior vice-president, marketing and sales, Astral Television Networks.
"We are delighted with the outstanding results The Movie Network OnDemand has generated in one year. The explosive growth in subscriber adoption and satisfaction is a positive indication of the upward trend in on-demand technology and a testament to the superior content offering of TMNOD," said Vivolo in a press release.
Since the launch of TMNOD, the service has experienced significant month-over-month growth. Almost 70% of The Movie Network subscribers with access to TMNOD are regularly using the service, with TMNOD averaging more than two million transactions or "views" per month. In April 2005 alone, the service recorded close to three million "views."
As an on-demand media service, TMNOD has no schedule constraints and allows viewers to watch what they want, when they want, 24 hours a day. The service also has the functionality of a VCR/DVD player, allowing viewers to pause, stop, rewind and fast-forward programs. With more than 90 titles available at any given time and new titles added weekly, TMNOD offers uncut and commercial-free viewing and a programming line-up which includes Hollywood movies, exclusive series and The Movie Network’s original drama series like Terminal City, ReGenesis, Slings & Arrows and G-Spot.
The only content not available on TMNOD are the original U.S. series’ it carries, such as Six Feet Under.
The company will celebrate the anniversary of TMNOD with a marketing campaign designed to appeal to those who have The Movie Network but are not currently using its SVOD service. The campaign will also target non-subscribers by promoting TMNOD’s availability at no additional cost through subscription of The Movie Network.
Research done in March indicated that TMNOD is a compelling offering for non-subscribers and can be used as an effective acquisition tool.*
The campaign consists of outdoor and television components. Created by The Movie Network’s in-house creative team, the two outdoor billboards promote TMNOD’s primary benefit – giving subscribers what they want, when they want, with the biggest stars available at their command. One execution features Brad Pitt with a tagline that reads "Brad is waiting for you," while the other execution featuring Nicole Kidman reads "Nicole is waiting for you."
The campaign’s outdoor media component launched earlier in May and is running across the GTA.
In addition, the two television spots for the campaign demonstrate TMNOD’s functionality and highlight its key features. Created by Taxi Advertising and Design, the on-air spots will run for 13 weeks on various conventional channels beginning mid-June.
TMNOD is currently available in Ontario to Rogers Digital Cable and Cogeco Digital Cable subscribers. The service will be rolled out to other areas of eastern Canada in the next year.
Movie Central offers a similar on demand service to Shaw customers out west.
