Broadway Television Network, which distributes Broadway musicals in a variety of formats, is pulling the curtain up on video-on-demand products.

The New York-based BTV produces and distributes live-in-performance musicals and offers them in digital cinema, pay-per-view, VHS and DVD formats. Now, VOD is part of the mix with two Broadway shows it has recorded: Jekyll and Hyde: The Musical, and Smokey Joe's Cafe (The Songs of Leiber and Stoller).

The company is licensing MPEG-4 compliant video compression technology produced by San Diego-based DivXNetworks. The VOD downloads are available on the BTV's distribution site, http://www.BroadwayOnline.com.

The launch is also something of a test market for DivX's recently-launched open video system, which is designed to provide digital video content to mass markets at lower bandwidth costs.

For users who don't want to experience live theater or the $50 to $75 cost of a ticket, they can pay $5.95 to download a video file of the show (or a buck less if the user pays for a broadwayonline.com subscription) for a five-day rental.