National Film Board of Canada Launches iPhone App
The National Film Board of Canada released an iPhone app that provides a free, full viewing of 1,375 films in English and French. The hundreds of 
documentaries, animated films and trailers are streamed over WiFi, 3G and EDGE wireless networks. “We continue to add new films every week, depending on how many we clear the rights for and can digitize,” says Deborah Drisdell, NFB director general of accessibility and digital enterprises.
The iPhone app links to NFB’s site for accessing movies which was launched this last January. Having just celebrated its 70th anniversary, the NFB decided to take advantage of technology to provide wider accessibility to the some 13,000 films made under its aegis. “Those films were locked in our vault until technology allowed us to make them available,” says Drisdell. “The iPhone app is a natural continuation of our launch of the website. People around the world showed interest in seeing our films online Why not let people have them in their pockets?” Drisdell notes that the mandate of the NFB is not commercial but rather accessibility to all NFB products, including digital.
Making the NFB site iPhone compliant has added quite a bit of functionality. “The app allows you to search, choose films, make a list of favorites,” says Drisdell. “And the “killer app” is that you can download the film for 24 hours. The film will stay on the iPhone for 24 hours and then disappear. That means you can watch it on your commute or at any other time. And you don’t have to use your 3G network to watch them, which could be expensive. You can watch later, even without a network connection.” Other features allow users to explore films by theme and target films viewed by people nearby.
The NFB went with the iPhone, says Drisdell, “because it was the most video-ready.” “We’ll monitor smart phones as they develop better video capacities,” she says. “And eventually we’ll move on to other smart phones that have a decent video experience.”
Upcoming, says Drisdell, are plans to create a download-to-own feature. “But it’s not in the immediate future,” she says. “What we’ve seen since the launch of the site, is that people are still ready to buy films that they’ve seen. We think the more people see the films, the more they’ll want to buy them. So, for premium titles, we’ll move this into the windowing. Like everyone else in this market, we’re exploring different structures that can work.”
The NFB, Canada’s public film producer and distributor, creates social-issue documentaries, auteur animation, alternative drama and digital content that provide the world with a Canadian perspective. In collaboration with its international partners and co-producers, the NFB is involved in community filmmaking projects, cross-platform media, interactive cinema, stereoscopic animation and more. Since the NFBs founding in 1939, it has created over 13,000 productions and won over 5,000 awards, including 12 Oscars and more than 90 Genies. In 2009, the works of NFB animation pioneer Norman McLaren were added to UNESCOs Memory of the World Registry.
Tags: 3G network, digitize, download-to-own, download-to-rent, EDGE network, film archive, film library, iPhone app, iPhone compliant, mobile video, National Film Board of Canada, WiFi network
This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 27th, 2009 at 9:00 am and is filed under Content, Devices, Home Feature.
Sounds pretty interesting and impressive.
Anyone know other similar apps for niche content that monetize content and that perform well?
…”Other features allow users to explore films by theme and target films viewed by people nearby.” — can someone explain that a little?