Transformers 2 delayed for download
DIGITAL: Title among other DreamWorks Studios films not online day-and-date with DVD, Blu-ray
By Jennifer Netherby -- Video Business, 10/16/2009
OCT. 16 | DIGITAL: The biggest box-office movie of the year, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, will crowd plenty of store shelves next week when it debuts on DVD and Blu-ray Disc, but one place it won’t be is iTunes or any other digital movie service.
The DreamWorks Studios’ film, distributed by Paramount Home Entertainment, won’t be available through electronic sell-through, just as none of DreamWorks’ other movies have been available through electronic sell-through.
Although it has become commonplace over the last few years for studios to release electronic sell-through, a.k.a. download-to-own, copies of films on iTunes, Amazon and other digital movie services the same day they’re released on DVD and Blu-ray, DreamWorks has yet to follow with digital copies of its own films.
Transformers follows a long list of other DreamWorks releases, including September debuts I Love You, Man and The Soloist, that also skipped electronic sell-through.
It’s unclear why.
Representatives with Paramount Digital Entertainment and Paramount Home Entertainment didn’t return e-mails about the lack of an electronic sell-through release for Transformers or other DreamWorks titles. DreamWorks representatives referred questions about home entertainment releases to Paramount, which they said determines DreamWorks’ distribution.
A source at one digital movie service said the company has never been given a specific reason why the films aren’t available, though wondered if that might change when the Walt Disney Co. begins distributing DreamWorks’ films. A Disney spokeswoman didn’t immediately return a call for comment.
DreamWorks is the only major studio not releasing films through electronic sell-through. Both iTunes and Amazon are already selling pre-orders for upcoming Paramount releases Star Trek and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, both due for EST release the same day they debut on DVD and Blu-ray. DreamWorks Animation, whose films also are distributed by Paramount, also are available for electronic sell-through.
It’s not only new DreamWorks’ films that aren’t available via EST. Catalog films such as Saving Private Ryan and Old School also are not available as an electronic sell-through download.
Digital viewers won’t be totally locked out of watching Transformers on their iPod, PC or other device, though. DreamWorks’ films are available as a rental download in the video-on-demand window.
Amazon is already selling pre-orders for digital rentals of Transformers, which it lists as available Nov. 18, a month after its disc debut.
