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Quickflix

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Quickflix Ltd.
IndustryVideo on demand
Founded2003
FounderStephen Langsford
HeadquartersSydney, NSW, AUS
Area served
Australia
New Zealand
Key people
Stephen Langsford, Founder
ProductsOnline DVD and Blu-ray Disc rental; Internet streaming
ParentKarma Media Holdings [United States]
WebsiteQuickflix.com.au
Quickflix.co.nz

Quickflix is an Australian and New Zealand streaming company offering a selection of movies over a range of smart TVs, games consoles, Blu-ray players, desktops, laptops, mobiles, tablets and other devices. Premium content, which includes the latest release movies, is available through Quickflix.

It was listed on the Australian Securities Exchange in 2005, but was delisted in 2017.[1] It had more than 182,000 subscribers as of June 2014.[2][3]

Services

Internet streaming

In July 2011, Quickflix announced that they would launch a subscription service to Sony's internet-connected devices, allowing Australians to stream movies and TV shows.[4] On 21 October Quickflix announced an agreement with Sony PlayStation 3 to offer their streaming subscription service to all PS3 owners.[5] 27 October 2011, Quickflix announced the launch of their streaming service to all connect Sony BRAVIA TVs, Blu-ray players and home theatre systems. The streaming service offered by Quickflix became available on PCs and Macintosh computers on 16 November 2011, and launched on PS3 consoles on 23 December 2011.[6] 31 January 2012, Quickflix announced they had signed an agreement with Samsung Electronics Australia to bring the Quickflix streaming service to Samsung's range of internet connected Smart TVs and Blu-ray players, the Galaxy TAB range and selected Galaxy Smartphones.[7] On 6 February 2012, it was announced that HBO had taken a $10 million strategic stake in the company.[8] In April 2012, Quickflix and Microsoft signed a deal to make streaming available on Xbox 360 consoles.[9]

In 2013, Quickflix became available on Windows 8 devices.[10] The company began their 'stream-to-own' service that same year, offering individual episodes of TV series close to broadcast.[11] By the end of 2013, Quickflix was available to stream from LG TVs,[12] as well as TiVo media devices [13] and the Sony PlayStation 4.[14] Streaming became possible from the Microsoft Xbox One[15] and Sony Xperia smartphones and tablets in 2014.[16] Quickflix announced a streaming deal with Disney, NBC Universal and BBC Worldwide in 2014 also.[17] A new deal with Lionsgate soon followed.[18] In July, Quickflix's new app became available to stream from the Google Chromecast.[19]

Disc rental

The company provides a monthly flat-fee service for the rental of DVD and Blu-ray titles. A subscriber creates an ordered list, referred to as their Quickflix Queue, of movies to rent.[20] The movies are delivered individually via Australia Post. The individual postage-paid envelopes arrive within four days to most of Australia. The subscriber can keep the rented movie as long as desired, without any formal due dates and without accruing any late fees. However, there is a limit on the number of movies (determined by subscription level) that each subscriber can have on loan simultaneously. To receive a new movie, the subscriber must mail a previous one back in the reply-paid envelope provided. Upon receipt of the disc, Quickflix ships the next available disc in the subscriber's queue (subscribers can pre-notify the return of a disc online, thereby receiving the disc sooner).[20]

History

Quickflix was founded by Stephen Langsford with co-founder shareholders Bill Keech, Sam McDonagh and shortly afterwards joined by Simon Hodge. Stephen and Simon were to continue as long serving executives and directors following the service launch in 2003 in Perth, Western Australia.[21] Langsford had previously founded internet and web development group Method + Madness, which was acquired by Sausage Software. He also founded consulting, information technology and venturing group Change Corporation in 2002, which was similarly acquired by CSG Limited in 2007.[22] Quickflix became publicly listed June 2005.[23]

In December 2005, Quickflix acquired rival company HomeScreen; a move that doubled the Quickflix customer base.[24] In April 2011, Quickflix announced the dispatch of their 10 millionth DVD, Shrek Forever After.[25]

In July 2011, competitor BigPond Movies revealed that they would no longer continue their DVD-by-post service, selling their library of 50,000 titles to Quickflix.[26] Quickflix launched their streaming service in New Zealand on 29 March 2012.[27] In March 2012, US premium TV network HBO, a division of global media giant Time Warner, invested $10 million in Quicklfix for a strategic stake.

To celebrate their 10th birthday in 2013, Quickflix polled their members on their favourite films of the past decade, with The Intouchables taking first place. Quickflix critic Simon Miraudo selected Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind as his best on the 50th episode of podcast Talk Hard.[28]

In 2014 was established as the leading streaming service providing subscription and pay-per-view movies and TV series over a host of major brand name smart TVs, game consoles, mobiles and other devices. Over 1 million customers used Quickflix since its launch generating well over $100 million in revenue.

On 21 July 2014, it was announced Nine Entertainment had acquired all of HBO's convertible shares in Quickflix, thus becoming Quickflix's major investor.[29]

On 26 April 2016, Quickflix Australia announced that they had appointed Ferrier Hodgson as voluntary administrators of the ASX listed company, and the reason given for entering voluntary administration was the company's largest shareholder, Stan a joint venture between Nine and Fairfax, refusing to restructure the redeemable preference share it had acquired from HBO, which would have enabled it to raise additional capital for investing content and marketing to enable it to compete in an increasingly crowded market.[30]

On 4 October 2016, U.S.-based Karma Media Holdings acquired Quickflix.[31]

See also

References

  1. ^ "QUICKFLIX LIMITED QFX - Profile and Status - deListed Australia". www.delisted.com.au.
  2. ^ "Report" (PDF). quickflix.com.au. 2014.
  3. ^ "Quickflix welcomes competition". B and T. 14 March 2014.
  4. ^ "Quickflix comes to Sony gear and PCs". The Sydney Morning Herald. 13 July 2011.
  5. ^ "Quickflix to Playstation 3".
  6. ^ "Quickflix launches streaming service to PS3 consoles".
  7. ^ "Quickflix Signs with Samsung".
  8. ^ Bingemann, Mitchell (6 February 2012). "HBO takes $10m stake in Quickflix". The Australian.
  9. ^ "The West Australian". The West.
  10. ^ "Quickflix coming to Windows 8 devices". News.com.au. 11 April 2014.
  11. ^ "Quickflix to deliver HBO shows close to broadcast". CNet. 16 April 2014.
  12. ^ "Quickflix available in more Australian homes with LG". IF-LG. 16 December 2013.
  13. ^ "Quickflix Comes to TiVo". IF-LG. 17 December 2013.
  14. ^ Nic Healey. ABC iview and Plus7 now available on PlayStation 4, cnet.com, 18 December 2014.
  15. ^ "Quickflix to stream movies on Microsoft Xbox". IF-PS4. 12 December 2013.
  16. ^ "Quickflix Launches Streaming of Content to Sony Xperia Smartphones & Tablets". IF-Sony. 18 February 2014.
  17. ^ "Quickflix to stream Channel Seven's series Revenge, Agents of SHIELD and Downton Abbey". Mumbrella. 17 February 2014.
  18. ^ "Quickflix in deal with Lionsgate". Yahoo. 4 June 2014.
  19. ^ "Quickflix now Chromecast compatible". Yahoo. 2 July 2014.
  20. ^ a b "Quickflix Review".
  21. ^ "Movie buff seeks same for download".
  22. ^ "Stephen Langsford".
  23. ^ "QUICKFLIX LIMITED QFX".
  24. ^ "Quickflix beefs up for download fight".
  25. ^ "Quickflix reaches 10m milestone".
  26. ^ Boreham, Tim (5 July 2011). "Quickflix buys Telstra BigPond assets". The Australian.
  27. ^ "Quickflix streams onto our screens today". NZHerald. 29 March 2012.
  28. ^ "Talk Hard – Top 10 Films of the Decade (2003-2013)". Quickflix blog. 27 November 2013.
  29. ^ "Nine snaps up HBO's stake in Quickflix". The Australian. 21 July 2014.
  30. ^ Francis, Hannah (26 April 2016). "Quickflix appoints Ferrier Hodgson as voluntary administrator". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  31. ^ "Quickflix snapped up for $1.3 million by US entrepreneur Erik Pence". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 5 October 2016.
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