The Interview now available to rent for $5.99 or purchase for $14.99 through YouTube, Google Play, Xbox Video, and SeeTheInterview.com
Starting at 10am Pacific Time this morning … Brad Smith / The Official Microsoft Blog : “The Interview” now available on Xbox Video Richard Procter / ReadWrite : “The Interview” Is Now Showing At A Streaming Site Near You Janko Roettgers / Gigaom : The Interview is heading to YouTube, Google Play and Xbox today Todd Spangler / Variety : Pirates Swarm Over ‘The Interview’ After Sony's Digital Release (Updated) Japan Times latest : Xbox, PlayStation game networks felled by known hacker group MacDailyNews : Apple's iTunes Store sits out Sony's release of ‘The Interview’ Jimmy Westenberg / Android Authority : The Interview is now available on Google Play and YouTube Movies Patrick Hipes / Deadline : ‘The Interview’ Online Plan Set: YouTube, Google Play, Xbox & Sony Site Zach Epstein / BGR : How to watch ‘The Interview’ on your iPhone, iPad, Roku or Apple TV Kyle Hanson / Attack of the Fanboy : The Interview Available Now on Xbox Video and Other Streaming Services Rolfe Winkler / Wall Street Journal : ‘The Interview’ Becomes Opportunity for Google's YouTube Movie Service Josh Lowensohn / The Verge : Oops: people are downloading and keeping Sony's rental for The Interview Kevin Fitchard / Gigaom : How to watch The Interview on Apple TV, Roku, iPad and iPhone Fred Wilson / AVC : Merry Christmas Everyone BBC : Hack threat comedy released in US Jason Koebler / Motherboard : Sony Tries Again to Make Twitter Delete Hacked Emails, But Twitter Isn't Budging Frank Gruber / tech.co : 4 Ways To Watch The Interview Online Now Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch : Sony Offers ‘The Interview’ Online For Rent Or Purchase Starting Today At 1 PM ET Neil McAllister / The Register : Sony releases Nork flick The Interview straight to DVD (digital video download) Jerry Grey / Neowin : ‘The Interview’ can now be streamed via YouTube, Google Play, and Xbox Video socalTECH.com : Sony Releases The Interview Online On YouTube, Xbox, Google Play Chance Miller / 9to5Google : Report: Google agrees to stream ‘The Interview’ on YouTube and Play Store (update: confirmed) Mike Lennon / SecurityWeek : Sony Begins Streaming North Korea Comedy “The Interview” Online Rollin Bishop / Laughing Squid : Previously Pulled Comedy Film ‘The Interview’ Now Available to Stream or Buy Online Tom Cheredar / VentureBeat : Sony offers ‘The Interview’ for purchase via YouTube, Google Play, and Xbox Video — but not PlayStation Kellex / Droid Life : Report: The Interview to be Streamed on YouTube and Google Play Tomorrow (Updated: Available Links!) Samit Sarkar / Polygon : The Interview to hit YouTube, Google Play and other streaming services today (update) Bree Brouwer / Tubefilter : It's Official: You Can Rent Or Buy ‘The Interview’ On YouTube, Google Play Ben Fritz and / Wall Street Journal : Sony Releases ‘The Interview’ Online Lisa Eadicicco / Business Insider : MICROSOFT: Here's Why We Decided To Release ‘The Interview’ Evelyn Cheng / CNBC : Sony to release ‘The Interview’ online Wednesday on Google Play, Xbox for $5.99 Pedro Hernandez / eWeek : Sony Releases ‘The Interview’ on Xbox Live, YouTube, Google Play Larry Dignan / ZDNet : Sony's ‘The Interview’ to be key streaming, security, cloud moment Bailey Reutzel / PaymentsSource : Stripe Enables Purchase of ‘The Interview’ Online Kip Kniskern / WinBeta : Kim Jong Un's favorite movie “The Interview” available today on Xbox Video and YouTube Ian Kersey / IntoMobile : You Can Watch ‘The Interview’ on Google Play Movies and YouTube Movies Starting Today Michelle Jones / ValueWalk : Sony To Offer ‘The Interview’ For Rent Or Purchase Online Ben Beaumont-Thomas / Guardian : Sony will release The Interview online Wednesday to US viewers Jessica Goodman / The Huffington Post : ‘The Interview’ Gets VOD Release Via YouTube, Google Play Gregg Kilday / Hollywood Reporter : ‘The Interview’ Goes to YouTube, Google Play, XBox Mercury News : ‘The Interview’ streaming now on YouTube, other sites John Gruber / Daring Fireball : iTunes and ‘The Interview’ — Brooks Barnes and Michael Cieply, reporting for the NYT: Reuters : YouTube, Web channels show Sony's ‘The Interview’ a day before theaters Paul Constant / The Stranger, Seattle's Only Newspaper : Sony Screws Over Independent Cinema by Releasing The Interview for Rental on YouTube Today Kim Zetter / Wired : Experts Are Still Divided on Whether North Korea Is Behind Sony Attack Tweets: @google : Our mission is to make the world's information accessible—yes, even Seth Rogen movies. http://goo.gl/yCdEPO Brian Stelter / @brianstelter : Sony CONFIRMS: “The Interview” will be available for rental through YouTube, Google Play, Microsoft's Xbox Video, etc. TODAY. At 1pm ET. Ben Fritz / @benfritz : Notably, “The Interview” will not be available on VOD/EST from Apple, Amazon, or any cable/satellite co. http://www.wsj.com/... Rolfe Winkler / @rolfewinkler : Big coup for @YouTube to stream The Interview. Very few people even realize that you can buy/rent content there just like iTunes/Amazon Dave Lee / @daveleebbc : Sony has confirmed to me that the release is US only at the moment. Staci D Kramer / @sdkstl : hope http://seetheinterview.com launch goes better than the news: site blank at first, now redirects to Kernel w/no mention of #TheInterview Matthew Panzarino / @panzer : Google plays the ‘freedom of speech’ card in its statement about releasing The Interview on YouTube http://techcrunch.com/... Farhad Manjoo / @fmanjoo : Oh god. I bet someone will live blog The Interview. Steve Kovach / @stevekovach : Missing from The Interview streaming options: Sony's own streaming service Crackle. (I doubt Crackle can handle) @mikeisaac : great opportunity for YouTube/Google Play — now folks know they can actually rent/buy stuff there, despite that being the case for years Steve Kovach / @stevekovach : Apple reportedly didn't have time to put The Interview on iTunes. I don't buy that now. Brandon Kindoll / @dcseifert : ugh i'm gonna pay $6 to see this stupid movie, aren't i @ganzeer : Congrats, Sony, on the most cunning Marketing campaign a film has ever seen: http://www.businessinsider.com/ ... See also Mediagazer
Context & Ripple Effects
A day after announcing select-theater showings for Christmas Day, Sony reversed course and put The Interview directly on demand — $5.99 to rent, $14.99 to buy — across YouTube, which had tentatively agreed the day before, Google Play, Xbox Video, and its own SeeTheInterview.com. That makes this the first time a major studio has gone from theatrical-only plans to a four-platform day-and-date release, and it happened under hacker pressure with Xbox Live and PlayStation Network knocked offline by the same group.
The launch was deliberately incomplete: Apple, Amazon, Crackle, and cable/satellite providers all sat out at release, and SeeTheInterview.com itself stumbled with blank pages and redirects. Whether the experiment pays would be answered within days by sales figures — and by how many viewers simply pirated it instead.
First-order effects
- Sony converts a crisis into direct-to-consumer revenue, keeping full margin on rentals and purchases rather than splitting box office with exhibitors, while Microsoft's Xbox Video becomes the only console storefront carrying the film even as Xbox Live fights outages.
- The four launch platforms get a marquee exclusive title no other distributor can offer that week — and SeeTheInterview.com's broken launch shows how thin Sony's own direct channel was compared to YouTube and Google.
Second-order effects
- With over 1.5 million estimated torrent downloads in the first two days, the price-and-window calculus is exposed: every holdout platform loses sales it could have captured, which is why Apple added the film to iTunes within days of sitting out the launch.
- Exhibitors who took the theatrical booking now share opening weekend with a $5.99 home option, pressuring the traditional exclusivity window that is their core business.
Third-order effects
- If the follow-through holds — over 2 million transactions and more than $15 million in online sales in days, rising to $31 million as Sony's top online film — studios have a working template for releasing contested or event titles straight to digital, with platform participation negotiated per title rather than assumed.
- Apple's initial absence followed by a quick about-face signals that no storefront wants to be the one missing a headline-generating title, eroding platform leverage over release windows.
The trend: Major studio distribution is shifting from fixed theatrical windows toward per-title, direct-to-consumer releases whose platform lineups are negotiated case by case.