On-demand movies to premiere on cable

NEW YORK -- Cable operators who long for exclusive offers of new films with video-on-demand are getting their wish, sort of.

In a VOD milestone, a large producer of made-for-TV movies — RHI Entertainment — today will unveil a slate of 24 productions to premiere on VOD through mid-2008.

The films, made for about $3 million apiece, won't be blockbusters. Stars of the science-fiction, action-drama and women-in-jeopardy stories will include Judd Nelson, Gary Busey and Marilu Henner.

"We're trying to put something unique in the VOD world," says RHI Entertainment CEO Robert Halmi Jr. They'll stand out because cable currently "gets the worst product" from Hollywood.

That's a sore point for cable. Comcast, for one, wants VOD release of theatrical movies the same day they open in multiplexes — charging consumers as much as $50 per VOD showing.

Hollywood has resisted; it doesn't want to anger theater owners. Many independent films, however, open in theaters and on VOD simultaneously.

IFC Films, owned by Cablevision's Rainbow Media, releases about two movies a month that way, for about $5 per showing. They do it because films such as The Wind That Shakes the Barley, a Golden Palm winner at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, "would never have been seen in Dubuque, Des Moines, St. Louis and Minneapolis had it not been for VOD," Rainbow CEO Joshua Sapan says.

Operators have kept quiet about deals with RHI. Time Warner Cable offered some of its movies in April. Cablevision and Bright House started last month.

Cox will start in September. Halmi expects to have Comcast, the biggest, and others signed by the end of the year.

A selling point: RHI movies are in high-definition as well as standard. "We currently offer high-definition movies in about half of our systems and plan to roll out high-def to all in the next month or so," says Bob Nocera, Cox Communications' marketing head for new video services. High-definition films from RHI "will help us to bolster that assortment."