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DivX to close Stage6 site this week

"We tried really hard to find a way to keep Stage6 alive"

26 February 2008 17:56 GMT / By Stuart Miles

DivX has announced that its quest to create a leading video sharing site on the Internet has failed.

Stage6, which tried to take on Google's YouTube has had the plug pulled by DivX due to expensive running costs.

The site, which offered DivX content for users to download in high-definition will shut on the 28th February.

In a statement on the site, a team member explains the reasons behind the site's closure in full, here's an excerpt:

"So why are we shutting the service down? Well, the short answer is that the continued operation of Stage6 is a very expensive enterprise that requires an enormous amount of attention and resources that we are not in a position to continue to provide. There are a lot of other details involved, but at the end of the day it's really as simple as that."

Offering DivX format video, of a higher quality than most video sites, it was also the platform behind DivX's media streamer launched in connection with D-Link last year.

However industry commentators Pocket-lint spoke to about the closure felt that it wasn't because the site had failed, merely that DivX content was now so ubiquitous around the Web that the company behind the format didn't need a site to showcase it anymore.

Full tags

Home Cinema, Software, Websites, DivX, Video on demand