IMDb Launches Streaming Service

September 17, 2008 By Digital Trends Staff

Already the bible on movie data, the Internet Movie Data Base has now added video streaming to its arsenal.

If you need to know something about a movie, from the year of release to an obscure actor, you turn to the Internet Movie Data Base (IMDb). Previously, the site – which is owned by Amazon – has been all text. But now that’s changed, as IMDb has begun streaming video.

The site now carries more than 6,000 programs, with plenty of TV shows, and users can also rent or purchase videos from – who else? – Amazon.

The service is free and supported by ads, and IMDb’s Tammy Hovey told TechNewsWorld:

"IMDb’s goal is to show its users every movie and TV show on the Internet for free on IMDb.com, making the site truly the destination for movie and TV lovers."

Showing 1 comment

bob parker at 8:12am 17th September 2008 I just watched a very recent episode of Swingtown. The sound did not skip, the video did a little, but typical for Internet video. The cutting of the commericals was a little choppy, but far better then I can do with my own Tivo remote, and I did not need a hand working the fast forward. There were only 24 shows currently listed, however, it seems real early in the beta.

This offers some interesting potential - including encouraging others to add to the IMDB database - hey, if I just watched it, I can add a few keywords, and oh yea - xxxx was in the episode as well.