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Soap citySony is a company known for their worldwide service in the realms of digital media. Sony group of companies launched Soap city in 1999 in its bid to dominate the emerging market of internet based TV. It was devised as an online part of the cable channel produced by Sony named SoapCity. This Sony Pictures Digital branch was developed to re telecast the same shows shown on the channel. But the effort did not prove to be much fruitful as it faced stiff competition from ABC/Disney's SoapNet and due to the hiccups in Sonys own Game Show Network.
Apart from repeating the shows broadcasted in the channel, Soap city gives detailed information about the daytime soap series with storyline materials and photos. It also provides the viewers with the footage that is not shown in the cable network. It provides the users the options of downloading digital versions of popular soap operas through the internet. As a matter of fact, Soap city.com is the pioneer in disbursing daily soap events shown on television on the web. Apart from giving the users the download options of the regular soap operas it also enables them to retrieve some episodes of the live shows from the Golden 1960s. Soap City started its download service from February 2003.
The Sony Pictures Entertainment is world famous for its motion picture production network and distribution as well. It is also renowned for its thriving Home Video distribution and acquisition business. It distributes films made under its banner in as many as 67 nations globally. The detailed information about its various branches and activities can be found in the website sonypictures.com. The daily repeat telecasts shows of some of the popular soap operas were available in Soap city. Some of them are The Young & the Restless, Days of Our Lives, As the World Turns, Guiding Light and some others.
The Sony initiative to provide digital versions of popular soap operas caught the fancy of Australias most popular site named ninemsn.com. In 2004, the channel commenced negotiating with Soapcity to allow it to broadcast some of the materials in SoapCitys archieves. But the online collaboration with SoapCity could not be implemented and it remained an unfulfilled dream for ninemsn.
The relatively moderate success of SoapCity has made the online community sit up and people have tried to fathom why this initiative was not as successful as the other ventures of Sony. A company spokesperson has expressed his view that the site initially proved successful in catering to the viewers demands but the high maintenance cost and a small database hindered its chances of greater success. Some magazines and media circles were replete with rumors that the site may be shut down. This created much furor among the lovers of soap operas who considered this site as a boon. The site is still functioning. But it has not been able to reach the dizzying heights of success that Sonys other forays into the world of Digital Media have accomplished.
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