Target Ticket is definitely closing (2 Viewers)

Read here... http://www.thebreakroom.org/index.php?threads/bye-bye-target-ticket.10835/

Plus, pre-orders have been taken down. Supposedly March will be it. It's not good that, if true, both Target and Best Buy have exited the UV business at its infancy...

I will confess that my first reaction was "....NOOOOOO KIDDING!! "


CinemaNow also didn't fare well for retailers who thought they could get in on this "new industry" they'd heard about without really gauging the market or understanding the technology enough, just because Wal-Mart/Vudu made it "look easy".

If we had two or three services folding at once, I'd think it looked like a popped bubble, but it'll probably be passed off as the retailer having no one to blame but themselves.


(And while it's not unusual to notice that even the Target employees didn't seem to know what it was, that's not a good sign for the customers, either.)

Definately not a service I used (calling it half baked would be kind) but competition is always good. It's also getting hard to call a feature of UV "take your movies anywhere" when there aren't a lot of GOOD choices outside Vudu. C'mon Amazon or iTunes...

Patrick Donahue said:

Definately not a service I used (calling it half baked would be kind) but competition is always good. It's also getting hard to call a feature of UV "take your movies anywhere" when there aren't a lot of GOOD choices outside Vudu. C'mon Amazon or iTunes...

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Competition is better when it COMPETES. Which usually boils down to a two or three-way contest between the champs trying to outdo each other with product, not marketing.

Amazon tried to get a jump with original programming, iTunes offered cross-platform Mac synergy, while Vudu offered HDX and 3D, and a better connection to UV than the studio-supported Flixster.

TT and CinemaNow offered, "Hey, we can do it too! Are we trendy yet? "


One sign of a misconceived industry is a lot of companies trying to get your attention to literally sell you the same thing as each other--like competing stands at the fish market trying to outshout each other--and three or four companies all trying to get their cut giving you access to your one UV account is inevitably going to lead to some thinning out of the chaff.

Patrick Donahue said:

Read here... http://www.thebreakroom.org/index.php?threads/bye-bye-target-ticket.10835/
Plus, pre-orders have been taken down. Supposedly March will be it. It's not good that, if true, both Target and Best Buy have exited the UV business at its infancy...

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I can order movies from cinemanow isnt that Best Buy?? If so its still open.

Just confirmed cinemanow is owned by another company but still exists.

Towergrove said:

Just confirmed cinemanow is owned by another company but still exists.

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In July 2014, Best Buy sold the CinemaNow business to Reliance Majestic Holdings LLC and its private equity owners. While still around and still using the same name, Best Buy unofficially "sort of" supports it, but non-enthusicaticly.

But wait, I thought all this competition was healthy and good?

Towergrove said:

Just confirmed cinemanow is owned by another company but still exists.

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Correct. I didn't mean to say that it doesn't exist, just that Best Buy got out of the business

But wait, I thought all this competition was healthy and good?

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Yes competition is a good thing. Good for the consumer in the long run.

But wait, I thought all this competition was healthy and good?

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Let me give you a few examples - Vudu lets you have your UV and DMA collections in the same place. That makes you want to choose them. iTunes has a fantastic interface for a movie's special features. That makes it an attractive provider. Competition definitely pushes everyone to be better.

We have to remember some of us are early adopters. Going forward just about every UV provider except Vudu will require a major overhaul for everybody with more than a few movies. I believe some of them will do that as more people are involved. Vudu works great as is, but if somebody comes up with a better one I would certainly consider moving, but even if it came down to Vudu being the only UV provider, it would still be much better than the alternative in part because its available on about every device which is very important.....no need to buy a new box.

Nobody said it was a good thing that TT was closing. It's not. But it doesn't affect the overall health of the UV ecosystem. There are still almost 20 providers. Now there will be four major providers in the states. Vudu, CinemaNow, MGO, and Verizon FIOS. And more will join in the future. I think CinemaNow will become more of a player in the future, because TargetTicket customers will have their accounts moved to CinemaNow. MGO will become a bigger player when they get more 4K content. They already have a few 4K movies, but I think its less than 20.

Joshua Clinard said:

Nobody said it was a good thing that TT was closing. It's not.

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(It isn't? So, CinemaNow's troubles aren't a good thing either?)

But it doesn't affect the overall health of the UV ecosystem. There are still almost 20 providers. Now there will be four major providers in the states. Vudu, CinemaNow, MGO, and Verizon FIOS. And more will join in the future. I think CinemaNow will become more of a player in the future, because TargetTicket customers will have their accounts moved to CinemaNow. MGO will become a bigger player when they get more 4K content. They already have a few 4K movies, but I think its less than 20.

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Except that that's making the prime fans' assumption: That everyone in the country is the authority on the format that the diehard fan is. (Run out onto the street and find me ten people who've heard of MGO. Go ahead, I'll watch.) Again, you'd think even the Target employees would have heard of TT and been in on a good thing.
After the DVD, Blu-ray and 3D wars, I swore I'd never utter the name of the mythical format-stubborn Joe S*xp*ck again, but his legacy is about to rear its mulleted head.

CinemaNow had Best Buy's backing, and couldn't even get the mainstream vote, simply because they showed up riding on a "wave" and didn't offer any compelling reason for the viewer to use it. That's the killer assumption most of the new companies have made, and there'll be a lot less than 20 services not long from now if they don't figure that out quickly.
If a lot of those companies thought they'd get attention for showing up, well, congratulations, we're past that stage now, and into the elimination rounds, where a company can fail if it's not sensational enough for the mainstream to notice, and not technically good enough for the experts to use. All that leaves is personal delusion on the company's part.

The way I look at it yes, TT was a very minor player, but TARGET is not a minor player in the retail world and for it to decide not to make a go at it is newsworthy.

On a side note, living here in Minneapolis where Target is headquartered, a lot of my friends work for Target corporate (one actually pretty high up) - and none of them had even heard of TT

TT had to have some amount of consumer awareness in order to get selected as a Disney Digital Copy Plus provider. CinemaNow and MGO never got that honor.

Or bags full of filthy lucre.


Anyway, assuming TT does close will 100% of their purchases be viewable by the main UV provider?

Or bags full of filthy lucre.

Anyway, assuming TT does close will 100% of their purchases be viewable by the main UV provider?

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Any purchases made through TT are moving to CinemaNow

Would have been a good detail to add to the OP, thanks Patrick.

Would have been a good detail to add to the OP, thanks Patrick.

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We didn't know that detail until a few days after OP was made... (Somebody on another forum called Target to get more info)