We recently wrote about Epix, the movie and entertainment streaming network that works across your TV, computer, and mobile phone. Jointly backed by Lionsgate, MGM and Paramount, Epix is launching its service today with 150 titles, with 3,000 more movies, concerts and shows to be added in the next year.
Epix says that eventually it will be able to provide access to over 15,000 titles, but as we wrote in our initial review of the service, that’s just a sliver of what’s out there, since it’s only the movies available through the studios that are backing the company. And, if you want this content in your living room, you’re going to need Verizon FIOS, which only some 2 million people have.
But for the next month, Epix is allowing a limited number of people to access a three-day free online preview of its EpixHD.com service, starting this weekend. For this period, you’ll be able to access the service regardless of whether you are a Verizon Fios user. We actually have 200 30-day VIP passes to the service. The first 200 readers who follow @epixHD on Twitter and Tweet “@epixhd Experience Epix” with the hashtag “#techcrunch” will receive a DM from Epix with a promo code for the VIP service.
We had a few bones to pick with the service earlier, namely that it’s tied to Verizon FIOS, and that it doesn’t offer a complete platform to watch movies on the web (but no one does). That being said, the platform is useful because it transcends over the TV and your computer and its fairly easy to use. For those of you who are able to grab an invite, we’re interested to hear what you think about the service, so be sure to leave your observations in comments.
Perfect service for a guy like me. I jumped through all of the hoops, hopefully I’m one of the lucky 200!
I started to jump thru the hoops but then decided it wasn’t worth the effort.
Witch such a limited inventory I doubt this site will be a hit…
The number of movies means nothing at this point, even netflix had to start somewhere.
What will guarantee this service never amounts to anything though is that it requires Fios. The free passes mean nothing to the majority of us that don’t have Fios to begin with and simply can’t get it because they don’t offer it near us.
They steal the cinema ideea from a small company called Eyepartner.com Look here :http://cinema.eyepartner.com/ http://mycinemasite.com/ . They are trying to push this ideea since 2006 .
“it doesn’t offer a complete platform to watch movies on the web (but no one does)”
Who doesn’t? Take a peek at PCTVCables dot com and you’ll find a “complete platform.” My favorite is Amazon’s Video on Demand.
I’m thinking that they could have sprung for http://www.epix.com
How much could it really take to buy that domain. Seriously, that guy is holding out big time.
Soooo, hey techcrunch when do I get my invite????
It would be great to have an API available for streaming! Epix, do you plan to provide one??
I sent in my Tweet around 11:30 EST today. Just got my code now! From EpixHD “Huge response to the launch today! Thx for the love! We’re working hard on getting the codes out over DM so make sure you’re following us!about 2 hours ago from CoTweet ”
Hang in there!
I sent the tweet around 11am EST. Got the same message as Artie got, and then just received the invite code. Yay!
It really sucks that Verizon’s charging for this… got my invite and watched a movie, it’s awesome. But another $10 on top of the FiOS subscription? I’d probably just get Netflix.
I can’t wait, it seems like a good product!
OK, I’m not a moron but even with the invite code I can’t get access. Anyone else want to give this a try?
EPIX invite code: Preview2-1t13t-93thp. Between my commercial internet FIOS and FIOS TV i spend over $200 bucks per month with Verizon, sadly I can’t find anyone able to help me at Verizon, on hold now (23 minutes now). WTF, Verizon tech support is such a disaster.
Update, 30 minutes later I gave up trying. Do yourself a favor and go Netflix Roku.
I got in with an invite and have tried to start more than 10 movies. Every one of them says unavailable or coming soon. Not worth the effort.