For the first time it is now possible to download your favourite Sportfishing DVDs online at the site http://www.fishingdvds.tv/The project comes from the same ’stable’ of publications as MARLIN WORLD which is produced by Strike Button Productions.
Just as ‘Marlin World’ took the sportfishing community by surprise with its innovative approach to creating a free online video magazine, FISHINGDVDS.TV is set to do the same. The idea of the website portal came about for a number of reasons, most significant of which were the desires to buy fishing DVDs online from the convenience of home, not having to wait for the physical delivery of the product, no matter in which format they were (NTSC or PAL) they could still be played from a disc on any computer, and above all else not having to pay excessive courier or postal costs.

The concept raised several issues; 1) how to deliver huge file sizes across the internet (most DVDs are about 4.2 GB in size) 2) how to convince the film producers that their work would be safe from copying by ‘pirates’ 3) where would the DVDs be sourced from, and 4) how the DVD digital products should be presented to the public on the internet.

Fortunately there was significant interest in the project from an international content delivery network (one of the largest in the world), an innovative Norwegian company that had developed a combined payment platform and DRM (Digital Rights Management) clearing house, the creators of a compression utility developed in a Danish university that are based in Germany, and a ‘cutting-edge’ website development company based in Madeira, Portugal.

Having brought the project to fruition, just the matter of DVD content remained. Two leading film producers in the sportfishing film industry did not need convincing when approached with the opportunity to sell their DVDs as digital downloads.

Michael Fowlkes of Fox Sports/Inside Sportfishing said “There is no doubt that this is the future of DVD distribution and we want to be a part of it”.

Bill Miles from The Ultimate Fishing Show, a New Zealand based company wrote: “The question we always get at The Ultimate Fishing Show is ‘What’s next’.  After catching marlin from hand-lines, jet-ski’s and lately out of a helicopter, or 500lb Bluefin Tuna on hand-lines from a 4 metre dinghy, our fans are always asking what next? We try to live up to that reputation and have done so over the years with revolutionary and pioneering underwater footage; high speed topside action with informative and humorous commentary. We try to keep that attitude within our business operation as well and that’s why we were really excited when Strike Button Productions got in touch with us to talk about the possibility of offering our DVD’s as a downloadable product; very cutting edge and very us. We jumped at the opportunity to be part of this revolutionary new service that will streamline delivery and help ensure we can continue to go out onto the briny and capture our amazing footage.

The site was designed and developed by Joomla Professionals ‘Navega Bem - Web Design‘. Managing Director , Chris Szabo explained “we designed the site in Photoshop based on a idea submitted by the client. We assumed we would need to use some specialized software to be able to deliver the content in a secure way. But after some lengthy research we realized that we could actually build the complete project around Joomla 1.5 and that is exactly what we have done.”
“We have once again been amazed at the flexibilty that Joomla offers and even though we have been developing Joomla sites for more than 2 years - we continue to discover tremendous functionality in a CMS that is improving at an exceptional rate.”