Remember the video-on-demand service MovieBeam that offered set-top boxes that tickle-downloaded movies to your living room using a niche in public broadcasting airwaves? While the service would only have offered a comparatively small, slowly-rotating series of movies, the service was launched with development from Disney, Cisco, and Intel, ran less than $10 a month, and for a time was a much-watched technology.
Well, in early 2007 MovieBeam was bought by video rental chain Movie Gallery, which itself declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy by the end of 2007. Now, word comes via Variety that MovieBeam’s assets have been acquired by the Indian conglomerate The Valueable Group for an undisclosed amount.
The deal includes all assets, intellectual property, trademarks, and alliances racked up during MovieBeam’s development and deployment. Disney, Cisco, Intel, and other investor poured over $200 million into the service, and now The Valuable Group wants to put another $100 million into it over the next two years to relaunch the service in in North America, the UK, and other overseas markets.
"Through this acquisition Valuable will further establish itself as a leader in the media and entertainment space allowing us to deliver ethnic and Hollywood content to homes and the hospitality industry worldwide," said Valuable head Sanjay Gaikwad in a statement. "Films will be delivered in high definition, and viewers will get access to library films as well as the latest releases on a first day first show basis."
Valuable says it plans to roll out the service in three markets by the end of 2008.
