Jaman, the San Mateo-based P2P Web movie service, has struck a deal whereby TiVo subscribers will be able to access Jaman’s catalogue of American independent (think Sundance Film Festival) and international film titles directly from their TiVo DVR. Viewers will be able to rent and buy films starting at $1.99, with a number of shorts and full-length films available to download for free. Jaman uses its own proprietary DRM.
Interestingly Jaman developed an unofficial plug-in for the first version of the AppleTV device which syncs content downloaded via the Jaman player. We’ll have to see if it works on AppleTV II.
Babelgum is closest to Jaman’s model, with it’s emphasis on independent professionally produced video content, but Jaman is about downloading high quality HD films to rent or keep, rather than P2P streaming. Jaman has a lot of competition in the movie downloading market, but most competitors focus on Hollywood movies, rather than the ‘fat belly’ of the Long Tail. Since 99% of films made do not get theatrical distribution, there is a lot of content out there. Jaman has been quietly building its catalog of movies and is available on PCs, Macs, SanDisk’s TakeTV and DivX. Founder and CEO Gaurav Dhillon previously co-founded Informatica in 1992, which IPO’d in 1999. Jaman backers include the Hearst Corporation.
This is great news… hopefully it’s but a foreshadowing of things to come in the entertainment field… the more original content out there, the better! I am still anxious to see how media becomes defined over the next decade and the new monetization models developed to feed an eager and hungry crowd for things that are outside of mainstream media.
Jon
http://woodmarvels.com – Create Unique Memories
Oh this is really good news for small film production companies that concentrate on short, high quality movies. I agree with Jon, this is definitely going to raise the content bar.
I like the idea and the platform seems like it has promise. Not to seem ignorant, but how many people really watch independent films? How big is this market? Too often, startups fail to market size appropriately, they see a problem and attack it ignoring how many people it affects; might this be one of them?
Josh – I think the independent film market is perfect for the long tail.
I watch independent films. That’s one data point.
Sure, I like explosions and special effects as much as the next guy, but sometimes you want to watch something different: Run Lola, Run; In the bedroom; Goodbye my Concubine, Bola, The dancer Upstairs.
And those are just films that I reeled off without thinking too hard.
Great going for Tivo!
Also,
Tivo has got to step up to the plate with content. If they can open up the box and just maintain a directory of content, then Tivoers can browse it like iTunes and just download for free/paid.
It seems like its a huge opportunity that they’re missing out on.
Just imagine! If they maintained a directory and payment system, then they could get a cut of revenues for the paid content items in this directory. I have had 4 or 5 tivos over the years and I suspect they dropped the ball in this regard.
TiVo…meh
“Its not TiVo unless its on a Tivo!” is kind of a sad, admitting defeat slogan, dontcha think.
@Josh
Independent films are harder to come-by but they are there… they usually play late at night or early mornings on TV but they are a different genre. Their budgets are non-existent most of the time, as a result, they MUST concentrate on the story… as unlike many big movies these days, there isn’t any eye candy to distract you. A fantastic movie to watch is “H”. I can’t find it anywhere but it was incredibly powerful to me when I was younger… many of the leading actors and actresses you see today had their start in these independent films as well. Like all movie genres though, you have some that are fantastic while others owe you your time back with interest.
Rushmore, Pulp Fiction, Raising Arizona are just a few that made it “mainstream”… and odds are, you have seen many others but just didn’t know it at the time
Jon
http://woodmarvels.com – Create Unique Memories
Jaman is a great site with great content, but their video quality and performance is lacking at times.
This does sound like a good idea. Content is key. Hopefully if the quality is bad, they can pick it up a bit.
they have a lot of B grade Bollywood movies…..marked as international independent movies…..not sure what the quality is of other foreign movies is…..
if it gets some traction it could be an interesting acquisition for some big media house…..but as a standalone company, indie market is tough….there’s a reason these movies don’t have a wide release because there aren’t enough people who want to watch these movies…..and if they are good, they get picked up by Fox searchlight etc. anyways…..
While I like Jaman in general, ultimately there’s not many reasons why Content Owners (even the lesser known Indies) would not ultimately choose Apple/iTunes as their primary digital distribution outlet. Seems like Jaman has to cut revenues with both Tivo and the content owners. At $1.99 per rental, that’s not much of a pie to split up with so many partners.
I don’t think Jaman can survive much longer independently. They will probably get acquired at some point soon at a not particularly too attractive valuation.
I think it would make sense for these guys to get a deal with popular review sites such as rottentomatoes.com. For movies that don’t have a theatrical release or MPAA rating add a direct link to the movie in their catalog.
Unlikely it will ever achieve critical mass. Indie movie auds are simply too small and focus too narrow. Nice experiment though.