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Posted by Marcy Magiera on October 23, 2009
Netflix chief Reed Hastings said during the retailer's quarterly conference call yesterday that he thinks there may be economic opportunity for his company in stocking new release DVDs more cheaply by waiting four weeks or so after their general release to get them. In other words, Netflix may be willing to embrace the delayed window that Redbox is fighting tooth-and-nail. As long as the studios make it worth Netflix's while.
Posted by Marcy Magiera on October 22, 2009
Research concern SNL Kagan predicts in a new study that packaged media "sell-through revenue will drop 13% to $12.86 billion in 2009 as VOD technologies begin to erode market share."Through the first three quarters of the year, sell-through is running down about 16%, so if it ended the year off 13%, that would mean an improvement in the fourth quarter. Many industry execs think that the improvement is going to happen. The SNL Kagan study, "Economics of Motion Pictures," is not so much about home entertainment, however, as the total profit picture for major studio films. The study analyzes all films released on more than 1,000 screens from 2004 to 2008, and finds that films with the largest budgets actually do generally return the biggest profit. For ...Read More
Posted by Marcy Magiera on October 16, 2009
Disney classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs made its high-def debut as the No. 1 Blu-ray in its first week of release. And for a moment, we thought the Blu-ray was perched atop the Top DVD Sellers chart, too. Confused? So were we. As a reminder, Disney made a strategic marketing decision to release Snow White, one of its crown jewels, on Blu-ray a full seven weeks before a new DVD version. Blu-ray streeted Oct. 6. Standard DVD is coming N...Read More
Posted by Marcy Magiera on October 12, 2009
UPDATE: 10/16-- Redbox president Mitch Lowe stopped by for a meet-and-greet on a trip to LA this week and we asked him straight out if the kiosk company has a deal to buy in bulk from Wal-Mart. His answer was not quite as blunt. He did acknowledge that Redbox has at least tacit agreements to buy product from some large retailers, who "put aside" stock for Redbox. In some instances though, he insisted Redbox shops with the general public. There are thousands of Redbox employees picking Universal product up from various retailers on street date, he said. Industries: Retail
Posted by Marcy Magiera on October 8, 2009
Hastings chief John Marmaduke makes one of the most clear and well-reasoned arguments against Redbox and $1 per night DVD rentals that I've seen, in a blog post on The Wrap. Marmaduke writes in response to the forum The Wrap gave Redbox's Mitch Lowe earlier in the week.The crux of the matter, from Marmaduke: "... if new releases would be available for $1 rental, consumers would be encouraged to forgo watching a movie in the theaters and instead wait a few months. Consumers would be discouraged from renting from bricks-and-mortar video stores -- putting these stores out of business and reducing access to the thousands of movies that can't fit into a kiosk. Consumers wou...Read More
Posted by Marcy Magiera on October 7, 2009
Barron's Tech Trader Daily blog reports that Piper Jaffray analyst Michael Olson today launched coverage of Coinstar (CSTR) with an Overweight rating and $38 price target. The parent of the Redbox video kiosk chain trades around $32. Olson sees several trends working in Redbox's favor, including kiosks taking share from bricks-and-mortar rental stores, Internet delivery still being several years from the mainstream, and consumers shifting $pending from packaged media purchases to $1 rentals. It's for all these reasons that we have to believe that major studio holdouts Fox, Warner and Universal will&nbs...Read More
Posted by Marcy Magiera on October 2, 2009
Netflix chief Reed Hastings, already a member of the Video Business Video Hall of Fame and of Time magazine's "Time 100" list of the one hundred most influential global citizens, this week was named one of The Huffington Post's "Game Changers."HuffPost has identified 100 "innovators, visionaries, and leaders in 10 categories who are harnessing the power of new media to reshape their fields and change the world." Hastings is in the Entertainment category, along with Jimmy Fallon, Ashton Kutcher, Nikki Finke (Deadline Hollywood Daily), Adam McKay and Will Ferrell (Funnyordie.com), actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt...Read More Industries: Retail
Posted by Marcy Magiera on September 29, 2009
"Simply said, the studios have destroyed the price-value relationship in video, particularly when low priced rental alternatives have sprung up everywhere."That's a quote from iIndustry veteran Bill Mechanic's wide ranging keynote speech at Independent Film & Television Alliance Production Conference in Santa Monica today. In it, the exec delivered a frank assessment of everything from creativity (or lack of it) at major studios, the copycat strategies of many independent producers, the glut of films produced over the past several years, and the role the studios themselves have played in "the confused video market." Of course, Mechanic knows that of which he speaks. He currently is president/CEO of independent production company Pandemonium LLC a...Read More
Posted by Marcy Magiera on September 25, 2009
The fan/sleuths over at Bluray.com are reporting that Target has several exclusive Blu-rays coming next week, including Gremlins and a less expensive Wizard of Oz from Warner Home Video, and a Monsters vs. Aliens BD/DVD combo pack from DWA/Paramount.
Posted by Marcy Magiera on September 18, 2009
Universal City, Calif.—For an indication of 3D’s potential to reinvigorate the home entertainment market, look no further than the effect it has had on the American box office. 3D screenings generated 8% of U.S. box-office revenue during the summer. "Without 3D premium pricing, the summer would not have registered as positive," Screen Digest senior analyst Charlotte Jones told attendees at the 3D Entertainment Summit produced here in association with our sister publication, Variety. By the end of the year, 3D screenings alone will account for $1 billion in box-office revenue, she said. Among theaters converting their screens to digital cinema t...Read More
Posted by Marcy Magiera on September 11, 2009
Physidgital. I know it’s not a real word, but it’s the new word (you heard it here first!) that kept coming to mind as we laid out the news pages this week. Back in May, we changed VB’s design to draw equal attention to stories about packaged media and those about new formats such as electronic delivery to homes and portable devices. Our tagline says it: “Covering Video Entertainment: Physical - Digital - Mobile.” The challenge is, it’s getting harder to separate physical, digital and mobile. Consider these stories. In “Connected devices come home quickly,” Jennifer Netherby talks about the growth of Internet-connected devices in living rooms—many of which have been playing physical me...Read More
Posted by Marcy Magiera on August 27, 2009
I conveyed in a piece last week the position of some studios that VOD, not Redbox, provides the ultimate in consumer convenience, at a price not that much higher than the average kiosk rental. I was quickly corrected by an email from a loyal retail reader, who pointed out that in his market, Comcast charges $4.99 for VOD, not the $3 to $4 I had tossed out. Maybe that’s why VOD isn’t taking off, he wrote. Pricing certainly has something to do with demand for VOD, as does the fact, that cable operators don’t market VOD very well. While this may be good news for physical rental stores, it’s frustrating to studios who would like to see more rentals go digital. This industry discussion must be burning the ears of some VOD execs, if a new press release from InDemand is any indication. The PPV and VOD provider blasted out a messag...Read More
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