EZTakes launches download-to-burn division

Super Size Me, other docs among iArthouse’s 800 films

By Danny King -- Video Business, 8/11/2008

AUG. 11 | Movie download service EZTakes today started a division that will allow customers to download from an inventory of more than 800 arthouse titles that can be burned on DVDs.

By the end of the year, the unit, iArthouse, will have “several thousand” international, documentary and other independent films available to customers, the company said in a statement. Among the titles now available are the Cate Blanchett-starring 2005 film Little Fish, which can be downloaded for DVD burning for $7.98, and the Morgan Spurlock documentary Super Size Me, which can be purchased for $12.99.

The site is part of a growing group of online distribution channels specializing in independent and other hard-to-find films largely ignored by larger retail chains. In June, New York’s Tribeca Film Institute launched its Reframe Web site, which helps fledgling filmmakers and rights holders to rare or educational movies digitize and sell their content at reduced prices.

Closely held EZTakes was launched five years ago by two former executives of mail-processing equipment maker Pitney Bowes. Last year, EZTakes, which has an inventory of about 3,000 titles with prices starting at $1.99, added an option to its site that allowed customers to download titles to portable devices such as Apple’s iPhone and Microsoft’s Zune.

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