This article was taken from the October 2011 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online. "A PC is very interactive, but it is not the right environment to watch Fellini's 81⁄2," says Mubi CEO Efe Cakarel. "The TV is the perfect environment, but it's a dumb machine. A connected TV is something else." Mubi is an on-demand streaming service for classic, foreign and independent films. The app is available on the PS3 and now comes installed on the home screen of Sony Bravia IPTVs in 58 countries. Two hundred indie-film distributors have signed up on a 50-50 revenue-share (most films cost £2.99 to rent), hoping for a slice of what should be big business: Sony says it hopes to sell 34 million internet-enabled TVs this year.
The service also taps social networks to help its 1.4 million users -- Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Foundation is a partner -- to rediscover classics. "A quarter of our referrals come from Facebook," says 35-year-old Cakarel. The London-based MIT graduate quit his job developing apps for business-software provider SAP to found Mubi in February 2007; three months later he was in Cannes for the first time. He is still more interested in tech than auteur cinema, but Mubi selects and reviews every movie. "We're about quality film. We take sides. Hangover 2? That doesn't belong to Mubi."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
