Jul 16, 2020 - Technology

Scener adds more services for watch parties

Ina Fried, author of Login

A rendering of the Scener experience for San Diego Comic Con as seen on a laptop. Image: Scener

Scener, a small spinoff from RealNetworks, is expanding its service, which lets people in separate locations watch video simultaneously while also chatting, offering a digital, socially distant option for watching a movie or TV show with friends.

The big picture: The company's product is one of many for which the pandemic has been, in its way, fortuitous, making what might have been a niche experience into a social lifeline.

Driving the news:

  • Scener, which had worked with Netflix and HBO Max, is announcing today new support for Amazon's Prime Video, Disney+, the premium version of Hulu, Vimeo and Funimation.
  • Scener, which works via a Chrome browser plug-in, aims to protect copyrighted content by requiring each device to log into the video service being used.
  • Scener is also working with San Diego Comic Con to offer online tracks in movies and anime that attendees can watch from home by logging into their existing streaming services.

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