Fox tests DVD, VOD simultaneous releases

The Happening launched on both platforms same day

By Jennifer Netherby and Susanne Ault -- Video Business, 10/16/2008

OCT. 16 | 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment is the latest studio to test day-and-date releases on DVD and video-on-demand.

The studio debuted M. Night Shyamalan thriller The Happening nationwide on cable video-on-demand Oct. 7, the same day it was released on disc.

The simultaneous release is part of tests the studio is doing to find different opportunities for their titles, said Steve Feldstein, senior VP of marketing communications.

“We’re looking at a lot of different models and looking at various incremental points of distribution that are available,” Feldstein said. “We’re doing a little experimenting with dating and windows.”

Feldstein wouldn’t specify any upcoming Fox titles that might also get a day-and-date VOD release.

Warner Home Video has been testing simultaneous releases of films on DVD and VOD for the last year. Last month’s Speed Racer got a simultaneous release, as will Oct. 28 title Journey to the Center of the Earth. But Warner has kept a window on bigger box-office titles. Sex and the City: The Movie debuted on VOD two weeks after DVD, as did summer release The Bucket List. Superhero Movie debuted on VOD a month after its DVD release.

Warner senior VP of strategic promotions and communications Jim Noonan said the studio expects to release 80% of its films simultaneously on VOD and DVD in 2009.

“We’re kind of learning as we go here,” Noonan said. “We’re watching very carefully. It has been very good for us in the VOD business. We’re not interested in growing VOD to the detriment of the packaged goods business.”

So far, other studios are mostly holding to a 30-day window between a film’s DVD street date and its VOD release.