Satellite Movie Company (1980–1991) LodgeNet Entertainment Corporation (1991–2008) LodgeNet Interactive Corporation (2008–2013) SONIFI Solutions (2013–2020)
The LodgeNet GameCube controller. Hooked up to TVs in hotel rooms, it allowed patrons to pay to play Nintendo GameCube games for a limited time.
SONIFI Solutions was founded in 1980 as Satellite Movie Company. The company was renamed LodgeNet Entertainment Corporation in 1991 and became a publicly traded corporation in 1993. LodgeNet purchased The Hotel Networks, On Command, and Stay Online corporations in 2006 and 2007, and changed its name to LodgeNet Interactive Corporation in 2008.
As LodgeNet, it provided guest room entertainment services[1] to most major hotel chains [1] and cruise ships[2] by installing and maintaining free televisions and offering video-on-demand entertainment; in return, the hotel and LodgeNet received fees.[1]
In late 1993, LodgeNet launched its on-demand hospitality service, including worldwide delivery of Super NES games to hotel guests via its proprietary building-wide networks.[3] LodgeNet eventually reported the system being installed in 200,000 hotel guest rooms by April 1996, and 530,000 guest rooms by mid-1999.[4] By April 1996, LodgeNet reported that its partnership with Nintendo to deliver Super NES games had yielded 200,000 worldwide hotel guest room installations.[4] On June 16, 1998, Nintendo and LodgeNet entered a 10-year licensing agreement for an "aggressive" upgrade to add Nintendo 64 support to their existing 500,000 Super NES equipped guest room installations.[5] Lodgenet reported that in five years to date, the system had "caused Nintendo to become the most successful new product rollout in the history of the hotel pay-per-view industry".[6] LodgeNet reported that within the middle of 1998 alone, 35 million hotel guests encountered the Nintendo name as an integral amenity,[6] and it reported sales of more than 54 million minutes of Nintendo-based gameplay.[7]
The Nintendo 64 LodgeNet controller, which could be used to play N64 games.One of the two versions of the Super Nintendo LodgeNet controller.
On June 10, 1999, LodgeNet and Nintendo began expanding and upgrading their existing Super NES buildout to include Nintendo 64 support. In mid-1999, LodgeNet reported that its 530,000 hotel room installations were increasing at a rate of 11,000 rooms per month.[4][7] In September 2000, Nintendo and LodgeNet began delivering newly released Nintendo 64 games to hotel rooms at more than 1,000 hotel sites, concurrently with the games' retail releases, demonstrating "the capacity to update [LodgeNet's] interactive digital systems with fresh content virtually overnight".[8]
Facing competition from oher companies and the rise of streaming services, the number of hotel rooms LodgeNet served globally dropped from 2 million in 2009 to 1.5 million in 2011.[1]
On December 31, 2012, LodgeNet announced its intention to file for a prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy[9] as part of a recapitalization that would give control of the company to Colony Capital, a global investment firm with $38 billion in assets under management and a broad range of hospitality and media industry investments. The commencement of these proceedings was announced on January 28, 2013.[10] During this period the company also announced that Colony had signed a memorandum of understanding with DirecTV under which LodgeNet and DIRECTV would operate as strategic partners within the hospitality and healthcare markets. The agreement extended the parties' current free-to-guest programming agreement to include DIRECTV branding, programming and content, advertising and other operational support.
On March 28, 2013, Colony announced that it had completed the acquisition, concurrent with an approximately $70 million recapitalization of the company and a new $358 million long term credit facility. The investor syndicate led by Colony was issued new common stock representing 100% ownership of the company. This completed the company's emergence from Chapter 11. In the same announcement, hospitality industry veteran Mike Ribero was named the company's new CEO. Tom Storey is the president of hospitality, Ed Kaufman is general counsel, and John Chang is the chief financial officer, completing the current executive management team.
The company officially became SONIFI Solutions on June 25, 2013, with an announcement at the HITEC trade show. In January 2020, its corporate entity became SONIFI Incorporated.
^"LodgeNet, Nintendo Sign N64 Agreement" (Press release). Sioux Falls, SD: LodgeNet Entertainment Corporation. PRNewswire. June 16, 1998. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved February 6, 2015.
