SkyStream announced that MovieBeam is using the vendor’s zBand content delivery platform as part of a renewed push to bring video on demand service to most major metropolitan areas in the U.S.

MovieBeam, which is owned by Disney, is actually making its second run at the market after being quietly shut down last year. The product, which looks much like a set-top box uses traditional broadcast infrastructure to push around 100 movies to a hard drive. Taking advantage of either PBS or ABC affiliate spectrum, the service will rotate in about 10 new movies per week with some being available in high-definition.

zBand will manage that content distribution process including ingestion, packaging and scheduling.

“We manage and tend the distribution,” said Scott Dougall, general manager of content delivery software for SkyStream.

One of the biggest changes in the new version of the MovieBeam product is its ability to offer HD product. Because content is pushed to hard drives at any time, the size of the movie file is virtually irrelevant. It also makes it hard to replicate the same service on an Internet-based system.

“It’s the first true HD VOD experience,” Dougall said. “The big power is we can use broadcast and multicast to push the content. If you tried to do that on the Internet people would be frustrated because the downloads would take forever.”

Additionally, the company is breaking the DVD-timing window on Disney products, pushing that content to users the same day it’s available in retail stores

“You’re going to have pretty close to whatever Blockbuster is going to have and you’ll have new releases at 12:01 on Friday morning,” Dougall said. “They’re going for people that rent new releases on a regular basis.”

MovieBeam is currently available in 29 metropolitan cities covering about half the U.S. population. The box itself runs around $200 and movies range from $2 to $5 depending on format and popularity.