Yesterday we reported that the big Hollywood studios were considering stretching the window between a DVD or Blu-Ray release and when consumers could rent the disc. Now we’ve got an idea of how long Hollywood would like to make us wait.
According to Bloomberg, studios want to extend the window from 28 to 60 days.
Hollywood executives are discussing a delay of 60 days from the time DVDs go on sale and studios continue to explore ways to bolster DVD sales and digital purchases, it said.
The news comes after Kevin Tsujihara, president of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, told the Financial Times this week that the studio is looking at lengthening the current 28 days delay.
Bloomberg didn’t detail which studios may seek a longer delay, but highlighted that beyond Warner, Universal Pictures, part of Comcast-controlled NBCUniversal, and News Corp.’s Fox currently impose the 28-day rental window on Netflix and Redbox.
Coinstar CEO Paul Davis told Bloomberg that the company has the option of buying DVDs elsewhere, but that it will continue to work with studios. “Some studios want a window and we try to work with them,” he said. “There’s a point to where it might not make sense.”
So, basically they WANT people to download their movies. This will not make more people buy DVDs, if anything it will only make more people look for illegal downloads as Torrents are usually released 2 weeks before the DVD ever goes on sale.
When are they going to get it through their dumb-ass corporate heads that the people who are waiting to rent aren’t going to buy just because they have to wait a little longer. I won’t BUY a movie until I’ve seen it. Since I never go to the theater anymore I don’t see it until I RENT it. If I like the movie then I decide if I like it enough to buy it.
If I don’t want to wait to see it on rental, I can pay-per-view it which costs me a little more than renting but still a lot less than seeing in the theater or buying it.
Frankly there isn’t a whole lot coming out of Hollywood that’s worth buying. Maybe that’s where these jackasses should be looking instead of trying to “force” people into buying their movies.
I would have to agree that this idea will not work at increasing sales. I currently see the advertisements about “it’s not available on Netflix for another 28 days” and I laugh. There is so much content on Netflix that I haven’t seen that I can wait the 28 days. If you force me to wait 60 days, I won’t notice.
Hey studios, here is a hint: If you want me to buy, improve the quality of your movies & shows. Give me value for the purchase (I can’t remember the last time I saw a new DVD that included the trailers). I’ll by the DVD if I know that I want to watch it multiple times. If I only want to watch it once, I’ll wait for Netflix.
Oh no! They are going to increase the time I wait to not watch their crap.
All this will do is ultimately increase piracy, people will pirate a poor quality bootleg to see if they want to watch before they buy, at least with rentals they get some money back.
Honestly, over the past couple years, there have been fewer and fewer “must buy” titles for me, and even fewer rentals… first because of how busy I am, and second because of lack of interest in 85% of the movies that are coming out.
For a year, I was waiting to save up the money to get Iron Man on DVD, and I watched 3 different versions come out. Eventually I realized that while I really enjoyed the first Iron Man, I didn’t really need to own it on DVD. I chose not to see the two Transformers sequels, and I just didn’t have the time to go see Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America, or a half dozen other films I wanted to see. I saw screenings of the two Harry Potter movies, and maybe a couple others, and that’s it over the past 2-3 years.
The now insanely short time between theatrical release and DVD release is hurting them more than it’s helping, because people are saying “it’ll be on DVD in 3-4 months, I don’t need to drop $20 to see it in a theater when I can spend that same $20 to buy it, then trade it in somewhere if it sucks.”
I also dropped Netflix because I realized I was holding onto discs for 3 months or more, and because I don’t own a device I could do streaming on. I’d probably still be with Netflix if I had streaming and could use it to catch up on or check out some TV shows, but it would definitely not be used as much for new movies as it would be for old ones.
Can Netflix, Redbox, Blockbuster, and those other rental services sue the studios for making crappy movies and impacting their ability to do business, or at least get an inquiry going? Seriously, blaming the rental market for a massive drop in sales is crazy, and delaying when consumers can rent just makes them go grey or black market.
Really, don’t they at least teach something about the consumer side of Prohibition to these guys in B-school so they know about the power of supply and demand?