With the imminent arrival of Netfix in the UK next year, many of our clients are preparing content at re:fine to ensure the platform is primed with the best TV programmes, films and documentaries. With many of our clients having content pre digitised and stored on the re:fine asset management system, execution of new deliverables is fast and efficient.

If you have content suitable for the Netflix platform, have recently signed a deal, or are looking to get your content prepared, please drop us a line, and we’ll gladly talk you through the process.

This month we have has struck a deal with Optomen International – the sales and distribution arm of Optomen TV – to provide  content processing services, including  digital storage, video encoding, and digital distribution.

Under the terms of the deal, re:fine and Optomen International will be working together for a 3 year period on future storage, digital media asset management and digital distribution. To kick the deal off Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares Series 4 has been digitised and digitally delivered to 10 major broadcasters accumulating to 200hrs of traffic.

Key new titles range from Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, Hotel Hell, My Kitchen and Mary Queen of Frocks.

Optomen’s content includes some 2000 hours of active library. Optomen is employing re:fine to facilitate its proactive move into digital distribution, taking advantage of the economies of scale associated with this method of global servicing.

At re:fine we are proud that Optomen joins the top tier of content owners that entrust re:fine to manage their valuable programme assets using smart workflows and online servicing technology. To find out more about how we make it happen for TV Distributors drop us a line.

re:fine have partnered with Curzon, who have launched a new online service, Curzon on Demand. The site offers offers audiences the  opportunity to watch films at home from the same day that they are released in the cinema.  The HD films are encoded, undergo QC and are delivered to the site by re:fine.

Curzon On Demand uses the latest technology to deliver a cinema experience in the home or on the move.  The site provides greater access to theatrically released films, giving audiences unable to visit cinemas the opportunity to see such films.  Curzon On Demand will give people freedom to experience films however and whenever they choose – on their television, mobile phone, laptop, in or out of the home – all in High Definition.  Never before has such access been available for lovers of cinema.

The Curzon On Demand service launched with Mathieu Amalric’s burlesque comedy On Tour, winner of the Grand Prix at Cannes 2010, and the powerful British drama In Our Name, available at the same time as their theatrical releases in cinemas.

Curzon On Demand is unique amongst On Demand services in that the website will operate as another Curzon cinema.  Films will be programmed specifically for the site, in line with their cinema releases.  Curzon On Demand also plans to offer films available exclusively online, online premieres and special events such as talent Q&As.

All films are available to the customer for 7 days after purchase you can learn more about the service and watch films here

This month fans of Stephen Fry have been snapping up these two series from iTunes.  Both series were uploaded by re:fine on behalf of Digital Classics.

The first, Stephen Fry in America, is a six part BBC television series in which Fry travels through all 50 states of America, mostly in a London Cab.

He is shown the country by its proud citizens as he drives across the continent, uncovering the idiosyncrasies that make each state individual and the similarities that make America so distinct. There are presidential hopefuls in New Hampshire, witches in Salem, nuclear submariners in Connecticut, deer hunters, small time mobsters in NYC, socialites in Rhode Island, lobster fishermen in Maine, ice cream blenders in Vermont – Stephen meets them all!

At the beginning of the series Fry, an English national treasure, makes the shock announcement that his father very nearly took a job in America just before he was born, therefore Fry himself was very nearly born ‘an American’.

Knowing this, Fry approaches the project with a genuine enthusiasm to find the ‘real America’ whilst skillfully avoiding every clichéd perception about American culture.  This is what makes the series so much fun to watch and probably explains why the series has been a smash hit with both UK and US audiences.

You can buy the series here

Second up is Stephen Fry and Mark Cawardine’s amazing documentary series Last Chance to See – another new arrival on iTunes this month. The programme is the television remake of a BBC radio series that was written and presented by Douglas Adams and Mark Cawardine in 1989.  The series landed on iTunes last month and has been a huge hit.

Last Chance to See is the story of Fry and Cawardine’s journey across the globe in search of a number of species that were on the brink of extinction 20 years ago.

One of the journeys is to see the New Zealand Kakapo, an adorable fat, flightless parrot whose numbers dwindled to 40 birds in the 1980s.  Now 90 birds live on Codfish Island thanks to the dedication of the staff that run an intensive conservation programme.

The series is light-hearted and entertaining and sees Stephen Fry taken out of his comfort zone to see some of the world’s rarest animals in their natural habitats.  The pair consider themselves really lucky to have seen nearly all of the animals on their original list, however the extinction of the Yangtze River dolphin is a stark reminder of the plight some of these animals face. Moving, intelligent and hugely entertaining work.

You can get the series here.

American audiences now have the opportunity to view hit Australian series ‘Satisfaction’.

The popular show, now in its third series reveals the world of five escorts and their manager as they juggle the pressures of their private lives and relationships with their profession.  Set in and around 232, an upmarket city brothel, the cast includes Diana Glenn, Kestie Morassi, Peta Sergeant, Alison Whyte, Robert Mammone and Nicholas Bell.

Satisfaction was commissioned by Australian Movie channel Showtime it is unlike anything previously shown on Australian television.  It is popular with male and female audiences and has won several Australian Television awards for outstanding drama series and best actress.

re:fine have just uploaded the first series of 10 episodes to Hulu – we can’t wait to see what American audiences make of this unconventional view of Australian life!

This year’s iTunes festival  is running throughout the month of July at Camden’s Roundhouse.

The festival features more than 60 artists performing over 31 consecutive nights in the UK’s best intimate venue. Each show is recorded for release on iTunes.

Officially the world’s largest indoor Festival, the line up includes 2010’s most exciting pop, metal, dance, jazz and opera stars including Scissor Sisters, Faithless, Ozzy Osbourne, Biffy Clyro, Paloma Faith and Rolando Villazon.

The iTunes Festival App allows fans to win tickets, watch the concerts streamed live and view photos and backstage info. Live EPs featuring highlights of each gig.

Programmes featuring festival highlights are being broadcast worldwide in locations as diverse as Thailand and Brazil.  re:fine are managing all of the deliverables for these broadcasts, including HD masters and the digital delivery of MPEG2 files.