Dendy Cinemas will launch its Video-on-Demand service on August 6, initially providing 800-1,000 films to rent or buy online.
Dendy Direct will also offer US and Australian TV series, in some cases one day after their broadcast airing, just as iTunes does.
The company announced licensing deals with ABC Commercial, Beyond Home Entertainment, Entertainment One Australia, Madman Entertainment, Pinnacle Films, Roadshow, Transmission and Umbrella Entertainment.
It will soon announce deals with the US studios and other independents.
The line-up will include Roadshow’s The Wolf of Wall Street, The LEGO Movie and Red Dog, Transmission’s Tracks, The Railway Man, Chinese Puzzle and Nymphomaniac, eOne's Divergent, Madman's The Raid 2 and God's Pocket and Umbrella's Mr. Morgan's Last Love. Among the upcoming titles will be Roadshow’s Transcendence and Edge of Tomorrow.
The TV slate includes eOne's The Walking Dead, Peaky Blinders and Klondike, the ABC's The Time of Our Lives and Beyond's French series Braquo and Hard.
“Our customers are going to be very excited by the variety of quality content that will be available from our new distribution partners,” said Dendy CEO Greg Hughes. “All the partners we’ve signed have distinctive offerings that suit our core Dendy customer and we’re looking forward to building a collaborative and mutually beneficial relationship.”
Greg Sneddon, Executive Director of Distribution and Strategy for Roadshow Digital, said, “Roadshow is pleased to be part of Dendy’s exciting move into the digital environment. Dendy Direct will offer a wide range of our new release and catalogue titles.. that will enable more fans to enjoy our fantastic slate of films.”
Huw Perkins, Home Entertainment Sales Director for Pinnacle, said, "Pinnacle are delighted to be one of the first distributors to have signed terms with Dendy Direct. There is certainly great potential in this market for a quality service like Dendy Direct and we’ve got a fantastic line-up of content for the second half of 2014 which the discerning Dendy customer will love.”
The pricing will be similar to that of iTunes, Google Play and other VoD platforms. Dendy Direct will tap into the database of 65,000 paid-up members of Club Dendy and to the 100,000 people who subscribe to the exhibitor’s e-newsletter.
The service will be available on a broad range of devices including desktop/PC, tablets and mobiles (iOS and Android) from launch, and via Samsung smart TVs in September and on Google's Chromecast in the fourth quarter.