Entrepreneur Sean Parker is probably best known as the co-founder of the music file sharing service Napster and founding president of Facebook. (Justin Timberlake played him in David Fincher’s The Social Network.) He was also an early investor in Spotify and was integral in the company becoming a global force. Parker has an excellent track record for investing and developing winning companies. This week, he announced his latest endeavor, Screening Room.
Co-founded by Prem Akkaraju, the company allows subscribers to view new releases from home. Variety reports Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson, J.J. Abrams, Brian Grazer, and Ron Howard are all backing the venture. Through the service, users would be able to pay $50 per new release. They would have 48-hours to watch the movie. It would cost $150 for customers to access an anti-piracy equipped set-top box that transmits the films.
In order to appease studios, movie theaters and exhibitors, Screening Room may give them as much as $20 per sale. Stay tuned for more details.
