Hollywood.com debuts Net film channel

Hollywood.com on Thursday unveiled Internet video-clip service MoviePick, joining a throng of Web ventures pushing broadband entertainment.

The entertainment Web site, operated by Boca Raton, Fla.-based Hollywood Media, debuted the service in partnership with Wavexpress, a broadband technology company.

MoviePick is a channel on Wavexpress' TVTonic.com, a video player plug-in to Microsoft's Internet Explorer that broadcasts media files including news clips, radio content and television programming. MoviePick will show film trailers, Hollywood interviews and host links to movie tickets sold on Hollywood.com.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The movie industry has been getting slightly cozier with the Internet as more people sign onto broadband connections, despite the industry's ongoing fears of Net piracy.

This year, Entertainment Tonight Online introduced a new media application that funnels news highlights and video segments to a PC desktop through a tiny TV viewer. Movielink, a partnership of five Hollywood studios, launched its online film-rental service late last year with some big-name titles and tight security technology. Starz Encore signed a limited partnership with RealNetworks to show a handful of films via the Web to subscribers.

TVTonic, only available to people with high-speed Internet access, is available free for a two-month trial and costs $1.95 a month thereafter.

MoviePick content is automatically uploaded and stored to the subscriber's PC, making it available on-demand once the TVTonic player is opened. Uploading helps avoid the delays of streaming media fed via the Web.

The company touts DVD-quality playback with files encoded at 1500kbps, higher than many broadband streaming media feeds.

"The picture quality on MoviePick far exceeds anything currently available online, and the instantaneous response to video controls completely transforms the browsing experience," Walter Boyles, Wavexpress senior vice president, said in a statement.

The service uses Wavexpress digital right management and cache control tools to prevent piracy and control user access to content.