IGN’s Direct2Drive Promise Starting To Pay Off Outside NWS; Deals With Lionsgate, Starz Media

imageIGN’s Direct2Drive takes another step in the direction of becoming a full-service digital download store, signing deals with Starz Media (Starz Home Entertainment and Manga Entertainment), Lionsgate, Central Park Media and News Corp.’s 20th Century Fox. One twist: D2D isn’t aimed at the general audience but at IGN’s core male demographics. The download store, then focused on gaming, and the technology behind it was one of the core assets in Fox Interactive’s hefty acquisition of IGN last year. FIM (NYSE: NWS) has used D2D to distribute video from various Fox entities but these are the first non-gaming entertainment deals specifically for the IGN store, which has been revamped for the occasion. (The first promos I saw, though, on the site’s main screen were for $50 game downloads, which may make people feel better about the movie prices.) FIM will put its pomotional might behind the store, promoting the new offerings and future releases across the network — although, oddly, MySpace.com isn’t listed specifically.
— This hasn’t started yet but D2D will offer specially bundled packages of related movies, TV shows and games.
— The downloads should be portable to Windows Media-compatible devices. Downloads can be transferred to up to two PCs and one portable device per PC. They’re available in DVD quality 2.5 mbps encoding but DVD-burning isn’t on the list for now.
— Movies run $7.99-19.99 while TV shows are the ubiquitous $1.99 a pop with season prices varying. TV offerings are limited for now to a grab bag of Fox series including 24, Prison Break, Bones.
Variety (which had this first): Jamie Berger, GM, IGN Consumer Products, said deals with other studios could be forthcoming, but site would attempt to highlight content that appealed to its core 18-34 male audience: “We’re not trying to be a superstore but to be true to a particular demographic.” Featured titles include X-Men: The Last Stand, Van Wilder, Dodgeball and Napoleon Dynamite.
Related: <a href="http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/fim-expands-downloads-to-include-movies-more-news-corp-shows-using-igns-dir/&quot; title="FIM Expands Downloads To Include Movies, More News Corp. Shows; Using IGN

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