TEXT OF STORY

MARK AUSTIN THOMAS: Are you a big movie fan like me? Well, a there’s a new service set to launch in 28 million homes in September. It won’t actually show movies, but it will discuss everything you could want to know about them. Ashley Milne-Tyte explains.

ASHLEY MILNE-TYTE: When ReelzChannel first tried to launch five years ago it didn’t get off the ground. Cable and satellite companies didn’t want to distribute it. But they’ve changed their minds.

The reason, says John Dempsey of Variety, is the explosion in TV movies, including pay-per-view and video-on-demand. Reelz persuaded those companies it could be very useful.

JOHN DEMPSEY: So you’ve got about 4,000 movies to kind of navigate and so I guess what they thought was, let’s offer a service that will at least let people know some of the movies that are on.

And help drive traffic to those channels. Reelz intends to entertain its viewers with movie trivia and feisty debates between critics.

Dempsey says it’ll a substantial audience, because it’s going to be supported entirely by advertising.

I’m Ashley Milne-Tyte for Marketplace.