On Demand Movies and TV in One Box

If you like the idea of getting your television ala carte -- paying just for the shows you want to see, instead everything from QVC to the Military Channel, you might be interested in today's announcement from Akimbo, RCA and Movielink.

The three are working together on a box that will provide television shows on demand from Akimbo and movies from Movielink. The $299 device (which will come with a $100 rebate) will sell in retail stores this Spring. To access Akimbo programming, you'll need to sign up for a $10 per month membership. That gets you access to about half their catalog; to watch other programs you'll have to pay a small per program fee. Movielink charges about $4 for new releases, less for older films.

This arrangement won't quite provide the "watch anything you want, whenever you want" digital video dream, but it's getting closer. Akimbo has an eclectic mix of speciality programming, like yoga classes and foreign language soap operas, along with more mainstream fare from cable networks like Turner Classic Movies and A&E. Movielink gets movies a little after they come out on DVD -- today they were featuring "Charlie and The Chocolate Factory," "Sky High" and "Melinda & Melinda."

It'll be interesting to see how this partnership, and the similar announcement yesterday from Starz Entertainment Group, will fare with viewers. Apple's deals for content on the video iPod have clearly opened studio's eyes to the potential for making more money from shows that have already been broadcast.

"It's been breathtaking to see the opening up of rights by content owners," Akimbo CEO Josh Goldman told me. "Consumers are now expecting on-demand access to the favorite programming." And while watching TV shows on the matchbook-sized screen of the video iPod doesn't appeal to me, being able to watch them anytime on my TV does. And I wonder: If Akimbo adds "The Colbert Report" to their library, would it be worth it to drop my premium cable subscription?