For almost a year and a half, thanks to online services, we have been trying to bring the world, friends, work, education and of course entertainment, art and culture at least virtually into our four walls at home, with some success, during a virus wave spills over us one after another, making most social and communal activities inadvisable. Hopefully this will soon be over, but “onlineization” will stay with us in many areas – especially since it was a trend even before Corona.
It is no surprise that (as discussed recently) the online film services have benefited greatly from the cinema closings (or the lack of leisure activities in general). As a result, the cinemas are increasingly losing out in the competition for film exploitation – for example, the decision of Warner Bros., all of them big, was a bang Film releases this year online and in the cinema at the same time.
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But it also works the other way around. Because, as far as we know, the traditional house Abaton in Hamburg recently opened its own streaming channel, where selected, but not entirely brand-new art-house films can be rented for home cinema. In terms of timing, this seems almost as fitting as the opening of the new Berlin airport during the absolute deadlock in 2020, after all, the cinemas will be allowed to start projecting again soon, but it is still a very funny and certainly not a bad move.
Abaton streaming offer
Especially since the technology behind it does not have to be handled by Abaton itself, but comes from the technology partner PANTAFLIX. He provides content and platform technology, and also takes care of support, ticketing and maintenance (
Platform as a service / PaaS). Its offer includes a TV show, series and film catalog with more than 12,000 titles, which incidentally also includes independent filmmakers with their works can be recorded. The operators of the Abaton only put together a changing, curated selection and hopefully can earn one or two euros more. 
Pantaflix extensive film catalog
Many film festivals also switched to online operations during the Corona period and relied on the Pantaflix platform, most recently DOK.fest Munich. A development that we have actually always missed: Access to interesting festival programs in (ideally) all over the world. This does not replace a real, intoxicating festival experience with 5 films a day and accompanying discussions with film crews, but you can’t manage that many of them in a year. And a great many films simply deserve to get more viewers – streaming
“as a service” could make that possible. –
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