DirecTV just announced that theyre partnering with A24 to co-finance films for (way) pre-theatrical VOD. Could this be a great deal for filmmakers?
DirecTV just announced that they will be co-financing films with partner A24 Inc in a new VOD business model. The first film in this co-financing arrangement is Enemy starring Jake Gyllenhaal, which will be offered on demand on DirecTV 30 days prior to its theatrical release.
DirecTV plans a huge marketing push."
Enemy, acquired this year at the Toronto Film Festival by A24 for between one and two million dollars, will be priced between $10.99 and $12.99 for a week's rental. Is the DirecTV deal with A24 Inc the future of premium VOD? How will this affect theaters? And, most important, is this good for filmmakers? Here are two winners and two losers of this deal in the short run:
Winner: Independent Filmmakers
The DirecTV deal with A24 Inc could be a very good deal for filmmakers because of the marketing investment DirecTV is promising. Hanny Patel, the senior director of revenue and product marketing, told the Wall Street Journal that DirecTV plans a huge marketing push, and will place the film acquisitions front and center on the channel's on-demand platform.
DirecTV has already committed $40 million a nice piece of change -- so far. Nationally DirecTV has 20 million paid subscribers and had $7.7 billion in revenues in the second quarter of 2013 . Theoretically, DirecTV could just be dipping its toe in the water if this works out well. The big question, though, is how much of a huge marketing push are we talking about here and is DirecTV in this for the long haul? The jury is still out, but the most intriguing part of this deal is the marketing muscle promised by the deep-pocketed, audience-ownging DirecTV.
Winner: DirecTV Subscribers
DirecTV, which has recently experienced a subscriber drop , is appealing to the so-called higher quality subscribers. This relatively small gamble offers subscribers a first look at compelling, non-traditional content. If it works and it probably will in getting some good media buzz, expect more edgy independent programming. The first film in this offering teams up the proven duo of Jake Gyllenhaal and director Denis Villenueve , who already topped the box office this week. This is to say the least a very promising beginning.
And now those who shouldn't be too happy with this deal:
Loser: Arthouse Cinemas
This may cause some friction with art house theater owners in that it could potentially eat into their audience. DirecTV, which has HD channels in Dolby-Digital 5.1 theater-quality sound, is a direct competitor/threat to the entire arthouse experience. More problematic: the viewer doesn't have to leave his or her own home.
The biggest advantages that arthouse cinemas have over the big exhibition chains are their specially curated, non-cookie cutter offerings and the sense of community with other cineastes. How to leverage those advantages? Arthouse cinemas are losing customers, and have been for some time. In order to better compete, arthouse cinemas are going to have to counterprogram, step up their game, as well as give audiences something that DirecTV cannot give, namely: festivals, a community and panels with live interactions with passionate filmmakers.
Loser: Big Theater Chains
What can big theater chains do for indies that DirecTV cant? Not much, in all honesty. In fact, big theater chains have been fighting tooth-and-nail against any collapsing of the theatrical-to-home-video-window (big theater chains including Regal cinemas refuse to screen the films in the DirecTv deal).
They have good reason. In a way, the conflict between DirecTV and the big theater chains on the future of the theatrical-to-home-video window is an existential conflict in that both antagonists draw their revenues, their sustenance, from one part of the equation. This new deal between DirecTV and A24 Inc is curious in that it just doesn't shorten the theatrical window, a previous source of tension between VOD providers and theater owners it eliminates the theatrical-to-home-video window altogether. That trend, pioneered for years by IFC, is not good news for big theater chains.
DirecTV has learned from their unsuccessful Home Premiere program a couple of years back, the direct predecessor to this new plan. The Home Premiere program, launched in the spring of 2011, charged, ill-advisedly, $30 for films that had already had their theatrical run 60 days prior. The Home Premiere offering in due time quietly evaporated after hitting several snags, including surprise! -- blowback from the National Association of Theater Owners. At the time, exhibition chains Cinemark and Regal announced that they would cut screenings and promotion for films opting into the Home Premiere program. They won that round when the offering vanished. This is Round Two.
Will premium VOD offerings threaten the traditional theater business model? We are still in the early stages of p-VOD experimentation. The three most interesting aspects of this particular experiment are: 1) the possible elimination of the theatrical-to-home-video window, 2) the fact that this challenge is being waged by deep-pocketed DirecTV, and 3) that they are targeting at least for now low-budget films in the $1 to $2 million category, which creates another great opportunity for indie filmmakers. The elimination of the theatrical to home video window, however, will have the most far-reaching consequences for the future of film. If this becomes a successful business model, its great for DirecTV, but its a bitter pill to swallow for both the arthouse cinema experience as well as the big theater chains.
Most recent headlines
09/11/2025
Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...
23/10/2025
The new solution is industry's first multi-channel receiver available for L3Harris's resilient tactical high-frequency data waveforms....
23/10/2025
NEW YORK During a high-profile session at NAB Show New York, new survey data was shared that revealed significant public concern over artificial intelligence (A...
23/10/2025
BELLEVUE, Wash. and NEW YORK Fox Weather has tapped T-Mobile as its preferred communications provider and said all of its reporters will be equipped with SuperM...
23/10/2025
RASTATT, Germany Broadcast and media workflow technology vendor Lawo has tapped Mike Wright as VP of sales, North America....
23/10/2025
MONTREAL European cultural broadcaster ARTE has selected Grass Valley LDX 135 cameras and Creative Grading solution as part of its move from SDI/1080i to a nati...
23/10/2025
CINCINNATI The E.W. Scripps Company has named Daniel Parsons as its new chief information security officer, effective Oct. 20....
23/10/2025
ALAMEDA, Calif. Northern Michigan broadcaster WWTV recently completed a major IP-based upgrade that connects its new Traverse City studio with its control room ...
23/10/2025
A deadline is looming for a new carriage deal between Verizon's Fios TV and Nexstar, with both Verizon and the pay TV-backed American Television Alliance bl...
23/10/2025
NEW YORK During a high-profile session at NAB Show New York, new survey data was shared that revealed significant public concern over artificial intelligence (A...
23/10/2025
BELLEVUE, Wash. and NEW YORK Fox Weather has tapped T-Mobile has as its preferred communications provider and announced that all Fox Weather reporters are being...
23/10/2025
PBS will use generative AI from Amazon Web Services to provide enhanced search results to viewers on the PBS App and PBS LearningMedia platforms, the network an...
23/10/2025
Back to All News
The Resurrected' Marks First Chinese-Language Series to L...
23/10/2025
RT is today publishing a statistical summary from the Register of External Activities for the second quarter of 2025.
The RT Register of External Activities ...
23/10/2025
Series three of the award winning, hit comedy entertainment series The 2 Johnnies Late Night Lock In is back on your screens, celebrating the very best of all t...
23/10/2025
Performances by Michael Flatley, Andy Irvine, Cuckoo's Nest, Foster and Allen and more
Friday 24 October, 8pm on RT One and RT Player
Fleadh Cheoil re...
23/10/2025
The nights grow longer and the shadows get bolder with Vampire The Masquerade: B...
22/10/2025
Prime Video Inks Deal To Present NFL Black Friday Game Worldwide By SVG Staff
Wednesday, October 22, 2025 - 10:06 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story ...
22/10/2025
NBA Tip-Off: ESPN Goes 1080p HDR End-to-End, Flipping HDR Switch on REMI and REM...
22/10/2025
FloSports Empowers Division II, III Athletic Departments With Turnkey Production...
22/10/2025
Wall Street Video Summit Debuts, Bringing Together 200 Financial Enterprise Vide...
22/10/2025
Dueling Pianos: International Chopin Piano Competition Is as Competitive as a Ba...
22/10/2025
In 1995, a young Colombian artist released an album that would change Latin pop ...
22/10/2025
Over the past few months, a photovoltaic system has been installed on a three-he...
22/10/2025
The Orion spacecraft for NASA's Artemis II mission is stacked on the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket in High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kenn...
22/10/2025
L3Harris' Hybrid SATCOM is resilient by design, offering path diversity that eliminates vulnerabilities by routing data across the best available networks i...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. Organizers of NAB Show New York said they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countries along with 260 exhibitor...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C The organizers of The 2025 NAB Show New York have announced that they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countr...
22/10/2025
Masque Sound, a leading theatrical sound reinforcement, installation and design company, supplied an extensive gear package of professional-grade equipment for ...
22/10/2025
Lightware, a global leader in signal management and AV connectivity solutions, is seeing strong market momentum for the UCX-3x3-TPX-RX20, a compact transmitter-...
22/10/2025
MELVILLE, N.Y. Chyron has released PAINT 10.2, the latest update for its telestration platform, adding support for SMPTE ST 2110 IP workflows, expanding brandin...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON Run3TV today said NBCUniversal is joining as an investor in the ATSC 3.0 Framework Authority, which develops the Run3TV NextGen TV application platfo...
22/10/2025
ATLANTA swXtch.io will feature two new networking solutions extending the company's reach across more cloud and on-prem workflows at NAB Show New York, set ...
22/10/2025
The Warner Bros. Discoverys HBO Max streaming services has increased prices for all its streaming tiers effectively immediately for new customers. Existing cust...
22/10/2025
LOS ANGELES OpenDrives has signed a new distribution partnership deal with Versatile Distribution Services (VDS) to strengthen its channel and streamline how it...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C The organizers of The 2025 NAB Show New York have announced that they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countr...
22/10/2025
Samora Pinderhughes Brings Immersive Sound to Berklee's Signature Series The artist and composer, who's worked with Herbie Hancock, Robert Glasper, Co...
22/10/2025
BMI Day at Berklee Celebrates Composer Fil Eisler and Awards Scholarship to Stud...
22/10/2025
October 22nd, 2025 TRIBECA ANNOUNCES STAR-STUDDED LINEUP OF MEMBERSHIP EVENTS F...
22/10/2025
Rohde & Schwarz and TRUMPF cooperate in drone defense Rohde & Schwarz and TRUMPF partner to deliver a comprehensive drone defense solution combining Rohde & S...
22/10/2025
European Broadcaster Upgrades To Grass Valley's NativeIP LDX 135 Cameras And...
22/10/2025
Everyone Gets a Better Deal on Verizon with New FOX One Perk The $15 FOX One streaming service perk is yet another way Verizon continues to add savings for cu...
22/10/2025
First Look Hidden Assets Series 3
Premieres on 9th November 9:30pm on RT One & RT Player
WATCH HERE Promo Link: Hidden Assets Series 3 | RT
The Crimin...
21/10/2025
NAB New York 2025: Although AES Show Is on Its Own, Audio Will Be a Major Part o...
21/10/2025
NAB New York 2025: Business of Broadcast and Media,' Future of Content'...
21/10/2025
SVG All-Stars: Ethan Folz, Senior Director, Digital Operations and Quality of Ex...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: Livestream Offers Graphic Overlays, Predictive Gaming, Ancil...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: At the Front Bench With Producer Frank DiGraci and Director ...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: NBC Sports, NEP Build Ultra-Flexible Production Plan That Se...
DirecTV just announced that theyre partnering with A24 to co-finance films for (way) pre-theatrical VOD. Could this be a great deal for filmmakers? 
