Movies - TV
Is IMAX Entering the Streaming Business?
By BJ COLANGELO
It looks like the biggest screen in the theatrical biz is entering the Thunderdome of the streaming wars. In what appears to be an attempt to stay competitive in the streaming era, IMAX has acquired SSIMWAVE, a tech start-up from Canada that specializes in optimizing video quality and viewer experiences across multiple platforms.
IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond explained that this acquisition will allow the company to provide the highest possible quality video images regardless of screen or device, looking beyond their current giant screen theatrical market. IMAX will utilize the SSIMWAVE technology with their existing streaming clients like Disney+, HBO Max, Paramount+, and Comcast/NBCU for live broadcasting, but the acquisition has opened them up to new prospective clients.
For example, if a popular game or a one-time event broadcast wants to guarantee that their audience is getting the best possible visual quality, they can now partner with IMAX to make that happen. While it appears that IMAX has no current plans to develop its own streaming service and will instead force all of the streamers who want this technology to go through them, we also never want to say never.