• by Wayne Friedman , May 11, 2010

A few days after the Federal Communications Commission gave movie studios the ability to stop some time-shifting films on cable systems, Comcast Corp. says it will increase its video-on-demand movie titles by 450%.

Comcast will aggressively add 9,000 movie titles, from its current 3,000-film library for its VOD service, On Demand.

This expanded number of movies will begin in Comcast's Xfinity markets, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. It will then extend out to other Comcast digital cable customers nationwide. Comcast says all this was possible because of new content storage and distribution systems.

In addition to 11,000 films, Comcast also offers another 15,000 pieces of video content -- including TV series, kids' content, music and other special programming.

"It's the biggest thing we've ever done in On Demand," stated Derek Harrar, senior vice president and general manager of video and entertainment services for Comcast. "We're revolutionizing our service with a system that is capable of delivering infinite choice."

New movies include: "Nine," "Leap Year," "The Blind Side," "Crazy Heart," "The Hangover," "The Hurt Locker," "Precious" and "Twilight: New Moon."

A few days ago, the FCC made a dramatic ruling giving movie studios the ability to stop consumers from time-shifting movies on cable systems through remote access to their set-top boxes -- citing illegal copying concerns. The decision was made because of the time-shifting on video-on-demand services, which primarily offer movies.

FCC said the wavier for the movie studios would actually result in encouraging the release of more films in new digital platforms, which would be run nearer to their theatrical windows.