• The Hollywood Reporter, Monday, August 17, 2009 10:09 PM

Sundance Channel is launching a video-on-demand service offering documentaries and international films -- often available the same day the movies hit theaters.

Sundance Selects will debut on Aug. 26 with Spike Lee's new documentary, "Passing Strange: The Movie." The service will be available on cable TV systems owned by Comcast, Cox Communications and Cablevision, reaching as many as 50 million U.S. households. The new VOD offerings are endorsed by actor Robert Redford, Sundance festival founder and creative director of the Sundance Channel. The cable channel is owned by the Cablevision unit of Rainbow Media Holdings.

A video-on-demand service provides new revenues in a growing business arena for Sundance Channel, which plays films and shows aimed at art-house and independent film fans. Now, indie movie fans who live in smaller cities without art houses can now access documentaries and foreign films they only hear about from media coverage of festivals like Sundance.

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