Sony offers free movies on Crackle

Spider-Man 2, A Few Good Men will stream with ads

By Jennifer Netherby -- Video Business, 4/29/2009

APRIL 29 | In a bid to keep viewers watching longer, Sony Pictures Entertainment’s video site Crackle.com will begin streaming Spider-Man 2, Godzilla and more than 100 other Sony movies for free with ads.

Sony announced the move today at a showcase for advertisers in Los Angeles, with Sony Pictures Television president Amy Carney talking up the benefit to advertisers.

Earlier this month, Sony inked a deal with YouTube to stream movies through its site, though Sony is offering a limited number of films there.

By adding movies to Crackle, Sony is aiming to keep core viewers, guys 18 to 34, on the site longer than the five minutes they averaged in March. In addition to YouTube, Crackle is competing against Hulu, TV.com and others in the increasingly crowded ad-supported video streaming space. But Crackle is gaining viewers. In the first quarter, the site posted an 84% gain in streams to users, according to ComScore.

Up to now, the site has focused on offering “minisodes”—short versions of Sony TV shows—and short-length original online series.

Honda will be the launch sponsor for Crackle's movie section. Among the movies available will be Stripes, A Few Good Men, 1941, American Hardcore, El Mariachi, The People vs. Larry Flynt and La Femme Nikita.

Crackle also will introduce Crackle Cinemactive, an interactive pop culture trivia game that borrows from clips in the Sony library to test users' movie knowledge on such themes as “Appetite for Apatow.”

Sony Pictures Television senior VP of digital networks Eric Berger said in announcing the lineup that more movies would continue to be added on the site.

"Our movie lineup is unmatched online," Berger said in a statement, calling the move “the next step in creating our direct-to-consumer network.”