Last week, the trade group National Association of Theater Operators (yes: NATO) ran an ad that reiterated their stance against the shrinking window between theatrical and DVD releases, as well as studios’ upcoming plan to to institute a new video-on-demand system. Video-on-demand (VOD) would provide premium-priced movies to customers only two months after the theatrical release–and long before a movie launches on DVD. NATO believes that a VOD system such as this will further undercut attendance at movie theaters and make it possible for customers to watch relatively-new movies en masse in the comfort of a host’s home.
To make matters worse, Paramount Home Entertainment also recently announced that it would also begin offering new DVD releases to Redbox the same day they are available to purchase. Previously, Paramount adhered to the 28-day rental delay that other studios favored, in order to encourage customers to buy DVDs rather than renting them. But now Paramount says that they haven’t seen that the 28-day window improved sales–so they are going back to same-day new-release rentals again.
So now the studios are evenly split on the delay: Paramount, Sony, and Disney permit new-release rentals, while Fox, Universal, and WB still have the 28-day rental restriction (which affects Redbox and Netflix, but not Blockbuster). Analysts believe this proves the 28-day window is a failure, since rental customers are disappointed by the unavailability of a new release only half the time they want to rent–which makes it easy to find another new flick from another company.
What does this all mean? It’s just further evidence that studios want to get their product out any way they can, and are not worried about movie theater sales. And when more movies are available faster and more easily, it’s only good news for the consumer.
