The UK Film Council and British Film Institute have partnered up with tech company Blinkbox in an effort to offer free streaming access to popular Hollywood videos.
During the "Full Stream Ahead" promotion, copyright holders and Blinkbox hope to stifle piracy, as 28 percent of pirates say they favor instant access. The coalition hopes to curb piracy by providing immediate access to legitimate movie content.
The promotion started today and is good for one week, with each visitor welcomed to visit the Blinkbox website via Fullstreamahead.co.uk -- guests will receive a £20 credit to watch movies.
The website lists their mission as "To educate and encourage people, including those tempted to try illegal file-sharing, to adopt legal methods for quickly and easily accessing movie content online" - FullStreamAhead Coalition.
Blinkbox currently is supported by Sony Pictures, Universal, Paramount, Warner Bros, 20th Century Fox and some smaller movie studios. For the next week, movies such as Avatar, Up in the Air and Sherlock Holmes will be available to Blinkbox users. Content can be watched via PC or TV, and will be higher quality than many of the downloads available through peer-to-peer and BitTorrent.
"We are doing it much earlier," [than the Music industry] noted Michael Comish, Blinkbox co-founder and CEO, in an interview with reporters. "By the time the music industry enabled strong and good-quality legal [streaming] services it was arguably too late. We are in the early days of digital retail for movies, and our ambition is to make people aware of the benefits of streaming services before it is too late."
It's very rare that I applaud copyright holders for their actions, but hopefully the BFI, UK Film Council, and Blinkbox are able to benefit from this week-long "Full Stream Ahead" movie effort. The campaign is available to UK residents only, and it's unknown if this will be the only time such a program will be in place.
