11-01-2010

Romania launches online film channel

By Iulia Blaga

    MediaPro Interactiv (www.mpinteractiv.ro) has launched www.muvix.ro, the first Romanian pay-website with movies that can be watched online.

    It initially offers sine 30 Romanian and foreign films, but the plans are to constinually increase the number of titles. The station's agreement with Microsoft Silverlight offers the capability of watching movies on 1200 Kbps without downloading them. Among the Romanian films in the portfolio are titles from Nae Caranfil, Radu Muntean, Tudor Giurgiu, Sergiu Nicolaescu and Dan Piţa.

    The price per film varies between 1.19 and 12.97 euro, with some films offered free of chage on special occasions such as the recent holiday season. Payment is made online or by SMS.

    "In a market where new movies come out on the famous servers the very first day after their world release, to launch a pay-website might be a crazy thing. But somebody had to do it. The future will tell if the market will provide paid content," said Orlando Nicoară, General Manager at MediaPro Interactiv.