DivX has announced that it is to shut down its HD video-sharing website, Stage6. Uploads to the site have already been disabled and the lights will be turned off for good on 28 February.
The announcement was made this morning, and an apologetic email was sent out to every user of the service. DivX said the site was to expensive to run.
“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,” said a DivX spokesperson.
Stage6 to be shut down
Stage6 allowed anyone to register and upload DivX-encoded videos to the site. These could then be streamed or downloaded by anyone in the world. The site also gave you the option of charging people for watching your video – opening up the possibility for amateur film-makers to make a bit of money from their work.
The unique selling point of the site was that its videos were higher quality than those from flash-based services like YouTube, and there was even an option to upload Full HD content too.
“I know this news will come as a shock and disappointment to many Stage6 users, and I'd like to take a few moments to explain the reasons behind our decision,” reads the statement.
“We created Stage6 with the mission of empowering content creators and viewers to discover a new kind of video experience. Stage6 began as an experiment, and we always knew there was a chance that it might not succeed.
"We tried really hard to find a way to keep Stage6 alive, either as its own private entity or by selling it to another company. Ultimately neither of those two scenarios was possible, and we made the hard decision to turn the lights off and cease operation of the service.”
We’ve contacted DivX for further comment and will let you know when they get back to us.
