Quickflix

Internet streaming

In July 2011, Quickflix announced that they would launch a subscription service to Sony's internet-connected devices, allowing Australians to stream movies and TV shows. On 21 October Quickflix announced an agreement with Sony PlayStation 3 to offer their streaming subscription service to all PS3 owners. 27 October 2011, Quickflix announced the launch of their streaming service to all connect Sony BRAVIA TVs, Blu-ray players and home theatre systems. The streaming service offered by Quickflix became available on PCs and Macintosh computers on 16 November 2011, and launched on PS3 consoles on 23 December 2011. 31 January 2012, Quickflix announced they had signed an agreement with Samsung Electronics Australia to bring the Quickflix streaming service to Samsung's range of internet connected Smart TVs and Blu-ray players, the Galaxy TAB range and selected Galaxy Smartphones. On 6 February 2012, it was announced that HBO had taken a $10 million strategic stake in the company. In April 2012, Quickflix and Microsoft signed a deal to make streaming available on Xbox 360 consoles.

In 2013, Quickflix became available on Windows 8 devices. The company began their 'stream-to-own' service that same year, offering individual episodes of TV series close to broadcast. By the end of 2013, Quickflix was available to stream from LG TVs, as well as TiVo media devices and the Sony PlayStation 4. Streaming became possible from the Microsoft Xbox One and Sony Xperia smartphones and tablets in 2014. Quickflix announced a streaming deal with Disney, NBC Universal and BBC Worldwide in 2014 also. A new deal with Lionsgate soon followed. In July, Quickflix's new app became available to stream from the Google Chromecast.

Disc rental

The company provides a monthly flat-fee service for the rental of DVD and Blu-ray titles. A subscriber creates an ordered list, referred to as their Quickflix Queue, of movies to rent. The movies are delivered individually via Australia Post. The individual postage-paid envelopes arrive within one day to most of Australia. The subscriber can keep the rented movie as long as desired, without any formal due dates and without accruing any late fees. However, there is a limit on the number of movies (determined by subscription level) that each subscriber can have on loan simultaneously. To receive a new movie, the subscriber must mail a previous one back in the reply-paid envelope provided. Upon receipt of the disc, Quickflix ships the next available disc in the subscriber's queue (subscribers can pre-notify the return of a disc online, thereby receiving the disc sooner).

History

Quickflix was launched in 2003 in Perth, Western Australia by Sam McDonagh, Bill Keech, Stephen Langsford and later joined by Simon Hodge. Langsford had previously founded internet and web development group Method + Madness, which was acquired by Sausage Software. He also founded consulting, information technology and venturing group Change Corporation in 2002, which was similarly acquired by CSG Limited in 2007. Quickflix became publicly listed June 2005.

In December 2005, Quickflix acquired rival company HomeScreen; a move that doubled the Quickflix customer base. In April 2011, Quickflix announced the dispatch of their 10 millionth DVD, Shrek Forever After.

In July 2011, competitor BigPond Movies revealed that they would no longer continue their DVD-by-post service, selling their library of 50,000 titles to Quickflix. Quickflix launched their streaming service in New Zealand on 29 March 2012.

To celebrate their 10th birthday in 2013, Quickflix polled their members on their favourite films of the past decade, with The Intouchables taking first place. Quickflix critic Simon Miraudo selected Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind as his best on the 50th episode of podcast Talk Hard.

On 21 July 2014, it was announced Nine Entertainment had acquired all of HBO's convertible shares in Quickflix, thus becoming Quickflix's major investor.

On 26 April 2016, Quickflix Australia announced that they had appointed Ferrier Hodgson as voluntary administrators of the ASX listed company, however their New Zealand operations are unaffected by this, and the reason given for entering voluntary administration was that they blamed the company's largest shareholder, Stan as a key stumbling block due to it not changing the terms of its redeemable preference share to allow Quickflix to raise capital for invest content and marketing.

On 4 October 2016, U.S.-based Karma Media Holdings acquired Quickflix for $1.3 million plus staff entitlements.