Comcast has expanded its partnership with Lionsgate to include bonus features and interactive content from Lionsgate’s “Divergent” motion picture that is based on the popular series by Veronica Roth.
The Lionsgate-designed iOS app, which is free via the iTunes App Store, includes an authenticated premium experience available to Xfinity customers with the purchase of the film through Comcast’s Xfinity On Demand digital store.
In addition to Lionsgate, which was one of the first studios to sign up for the digital store in November, the store also has video content available from Twentieth Century Fox, Lionsgate, MGM, NBCUniversal, Sony Pictures and Warner Bros.
With more than four hours of state-of-the-art bonus features and interactive content, Xfinity customers will be the first to view “Divergent” movie scenes from multiple angles. It will also feature 360-degree camera views from the red carpet premiers. Comcast subscribers can also embark on a virtual reality audio experience during a “Dauntless” initiation and explore the film’s fashion through interactive flipbooks.
“We have been working with Lionsgate and all of our studio partners to launch a product that allows producers, directors, writers, designers and engineers to explore and create next generation digital experiences that expand and extend the life of digital franchises across platforms for Xfinity customers,” said Matt Strauss, general manager and senior vice president, video services, Comcast Cable. “We are providing studios with a platform to enhance the digital ownership experience by continually adding new content and experiences for customers that will immerse them in the worlds of these films like never before, first on their favorite mobile devices, and soon on the TV via X1.”
As part of the ongoing partnership, Lionsgate will roll out additional title-specific apps built around upcoming releases featuring premium digital content available to Xfinity customers. The “Divergent” app is a “life cycle” app that follows the movie not only from theatrical through home entertainment release and beyond but is designed to meet the demands of fans throughout the entire trajectory of the franchise.
“The app does a wonderful job of expanding the world of ‘Divergent’ and creating a rich and immersive experience for our fans,” said Lucy Fisher and Doug Wick of Red Wagon Entertainment, who are producing the series. “We’re particularly excited that this is a life cycle app that will follow the trajectory of the entire “Divergent” franchise, and it showcases Lionsgate and Comcast at their innovative and visionary best.”
Xfinity customers who purchase “Divergent” from the Xfinity On Demand digital store and download the free iOS app can sign-in to the app using their Xfinity credentials.
Enhanced content for Xfinity customers, combined with the app’s generally available content, create more than 6 ½ hours of interactive value-added material for fans. Next year, Xfinity subscribers with X1 will be able to access the “Divergent” app, and subsequent apps, as an Internet app on the TV through their X1 set-top boxes.
The app also features state-of-the-art DTS Headphone: X technology that gives fans a surround sound experience using any brand of headphones, marking one of the first times this technology has been included in the special features of a home entertainment release.
The next film in the “Divergent” series, “Insurgent,” will be released worldwide on March 20. The first film has grossed nearly $300 million at the global box office, and the series of books has sold more than 25 million copies
