Embracing rivals
IFilm.com relaunches as portal for all Web pics
Although move does not signal that iFilm is throwing in the towel when it comes to distribbing films online (the site will still give its library of 1,200 films prominent play), iFilm has extended an olive branch to other, once-rival Netcasters.
In a cashless co-marketing partnership, each individual site tells iFilm of new titles to hit the Web. The relaunch includes a combined library of over 4,000 films.
"Every week there are dozens of sites adding hundreds of new films on the Web, yet until now there was no single place to find all the best films from all the best sites," said iFilm co-founder and CEO Kevin Wendle, "There hasn’t been a portal for film."
For more prominent placement of their programming, AlwaysI, Honkworm, Icebox, Nibblebox, Razorfish’s RSUB, ReelShort, Urban Entertainment, Eveo and Wirebreak have inked to join iFilm as "premier partners" in exchange for weekly content updates to the site.
Curiously AtomFilms is not a premier partner, but iFilm said it is in talks with every Netcaster.
Even with the new site, iFilm said it is still dependent on its iFilmpro.com online film business venture as its core revenue stream as it tries to target the $30 billion production biz through subscriptions and ads to its databases.
Ad space is being sold on iFilm.com, however. Netcasters have already begun buying banner ads at the top of the page to push their programming.
Portal will give iFilm many more pages to sell ads "which is the nature of these beasts," Wendle said.
IFilm on Friday also began previewing its new locations-scouting offering, complete with a library of thousands of digital photos created by recent acquisition StudioXChange.com. IFilm plans to launch several such sites offering new tools to the film trade each month.
Links to recent acquisitions the Hollywood Creative Directory and ScriptShark.com were also added.
"We’ve been listening to our audience and have worked on this new site for months," Wendle said. "AtomFilms has some of the best content on the Web. Shockwave.com has some of the best Flash animation. If you want to be valuable to consumers, it means giving them options. Internet sites have operated like Old World businesses where they’re competing with the store down the street. It’s not like that anymore. The Internet is about partnerships."
