Criterion on Demand

For the last 40 years, Criterion Pictures has been providing feature film rights to the Canadian non-theatrical market which includes Schools, Daycares, Municipalities, Colleges and Universities, Ground Transportation, Small Hotels, Resorts, Recreation Centres, Public Libraries, Businesses, Film Societies, etc.

Criterion Pictures distributes its product via film, DVD, VHS and more recently digital delivery. Working with its customers, it has developed a large number of viewing options in order to find cost-effective presentation methods that meet the individual needs of each marketplace.

Criterion Pictures works with its clients, whether it be for entertainment or educational purposes, to ensure client satisfaction and product superiority.

Criterion Pictures has developed an online digital delivery feature film platform called Criterion-on-Demand. Our goal is to provide easy access to educationally relevant feature films used in Canadian Higher Education Institutions. We have been working closely with Colleges and Universities to ensure we meet the needs of this market sector.

Criterion-on-Demand is the only customizable online Feature Film Solution-focused specifically on the Canadian Post Secondary Market.

[From vendor]

Last updated: September 21, 2021

View current product description on the vendor's website

Multi-Consortial Note:

This license is made available through a national site license negotiated on behalf of Consortia Canada by the The Alberta Library (TAL).

Vendor:

Criterion Pictures

Supporting documents:

Full Resource Details

Frequently Asked Questions

What if two students want to stream the same film at the same time?

They'll both get to watch it. This is an unlimited streaming service. Criterion believes they have sufficient bandwidth and server capacity to support many simultaneous streams of the same or different films.

The licence says in 2(b) "personal, non-commercial and educational or research viewing". What exactly does that mean?

The licence is for educational use. Here are some examples of permitted uses:

the instructor shows a film to students in the classroom or in the library's showing room
the instructor tells students to watch the film (on or off campus) over the weekend and come to the next class prepared to discuss it
the instructor gives students a “reading list” of 10 films and tells them to watch one (or more) and write an essay about it
a masters student doing thesis on a famous director repeatedly views films by that director

Here are some examples which are NOT educational use and would not be permitted:

the university holds an event open to the public and wants to stream a film from the CoD platform
a student club wants to hold a movie night on campus and stream the film via CoD

However, note the question below about the Criterion Entertainment PPR licence. If a school has the Entertainment PPR licence, the above two examples would be permitted.

My school has the Criterion Public Performance Rights (PPR) licence which allows for Entertainment uses. Does that expand the use(s) they may make of the CoD service?

Yes. The Entertainment PPR licence requires that the film being shown is a legitimate copy (i.e. purchased by library, the instructor's personal copy, etc.), not an illegal copy. The CoD platform is a legitimate source for films. Note that the Entertainment PPR licence only covers on-campus viewing. Off campus entertainment use is never permitted.

Do the films have Closed Captioning (CC)?

No, but most films have subtitles. Subtitling may not meet accessibility requirements. The vendor states they're working on CC, but it is expensive and will not be complete anytime soon.

Can the MARC records be loaded to a knowledge base or discovery layer?

Yes. Libraries can use whatever local access tools they wish to handle the MARC records, including the ILS and other such tools. Instructors can then freely copy those links into Learning Management Systems or online syllabi as desired.

Are usage statistics are available?

Yes, Criterion automatically generates monthly usage statistics for each subscribing institution and sends them out on the first Monday of the month to the library contact on file.