FUNimation Entertainment Partners with BuyDRM to Power Download-To-Own Offering
KeyOS Rights Management Platform Enables Download Model
Fort Worth, Texas (October 28, 2008) FUNimation® Entertainment recently launched a pay-per-view offering of high-quality video via their website www.FUNimation.com. The goal of this offering is to compliment FUNimations’ broadcast, IPTV and DVD distribution business models while enabling viewers to download high-quality video content for online and offline viewing. This new offering features such popular Anime titles as Witchblade, Gunslinger Girl and Shuffle and is powered by the KeyOS Rights Management Platform from BuyDRM.
FUNimation.com also offers subtitled series before their release on DVD such as Jyu-Oh-Sei, Baccano, and Shigurui.
Using KeyOS, FUNimation was able to deploy an integrated offering with secure eCommerce, user management, purchase statistics and granular rights control while maintaining the Funimation brand and website operation. Funimation is able to add and deploy additional content in minutes using the KeyOS family of encryption applications and they receive daily reports showing all purchase and usage activity via email.
“FUNimation’s movement into the online media space gives them a new and exciting arena to market, monetize and monitor their content globally, while still preserving the value of their traditional media content” said Christopher Levy, BuyDRM’s Founder and CEO. “As the North American leader in anime video, we believe FUNimation is simultaneously raising the bar for their competition while creating new channels of revenue for the studio.”
“Although our content is currently available on iTunes, X-Box Live Marketplace, and the PLAYSTATION Network, we wanted to have a direct-to-consumer offering that provided our customers with a FUNimation-branded experience along with our entire catalog” said Gen Fukunaga, president and CEO at FUNimation Entertainment. “BuyDRM’s KeyOS Platform made it easy for our staff to monetize our content while providing robust eCommerce, geo-targeting and encryption technologies.”
About FUNimation Entertainment
FUNimation® Entertainment, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Navarre Corporation, is the leading company for home video sales of Japanese animation in the United States. FUNimation has a proven formula for launching and advancing brands, and manages a full spectrum of rights for most of its brands including broadcasting, licensing, production, internet, and home video sales and distribution. For more information about FUNimation Entertainment and its brands, visit www.funimation.com.
About BuyDRM
BuyDRM, a division of Austin, Texas based NFA Group Inc., was founded in 2001 to meet the needs of the rapidly expanding pay media industry. Its flagship product KeyOS is offered as both a service and solution, representing extensive research, development and practical commercial use in deploying digital rights management technology. BuyDRM is a preeminent provider of Microsoft DRM technology and a featured Microsoft Partner, with more than 150 customers in the entertainment industry as well as in enterprise and education solutions. BuyDRM’s founder and CEO, Christopher Levy, is a four-time recipient of the Microsoft MVP award for Digital Media with a focus on DRM. His blog about DRM is located at http://thedrmblog.com. For more information contact sales@BuyDRM.com,visit www.BuyDRM.com or call 512.377.1340.
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