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Paramount is planning to stagger releases by releasing the Blu-ray and DVD rental version of movies first, and then releasing the sell-through DVD version of the movie up to 8 weeks later. The first title to be part of this program will be the movie Dance Flick.
Now I've been critical of this kind of strategy in the past, even before Blu-ray was released, as studios have been trying forever to have a system where the sell-through DVD version can be delayed for sale in order to gain better rental agreements and income. The "rental only" DVD version of movies (versions without extra features) were part of this plan, which has since failed quite miserably. Limiting the ability to purchase movies will not help rentals, only piracy.
The only difference now is that Blu-ray's in the mix and it would be suicide to delay the sale of the Blu-ray version along with the DVD version, not for such a new format and not when profits are up for the format. But the problem remains that by delaying the sell-through DVD version, to artificially inflate DVD rental and Blu-ray income, it's only going to drive more people to pirate movies. Let's imagine someone who wants to own the movie, not rent it, but don't have Blu-ray - they will see the Blu-ray version being sold at stores, and the movie available for rent, and they will be thinking to themselves, why do I have to wait 8 week to get the "privilege" to fork over my hard earned cash to studios? Why not just torrent it, and then buy later if I'm still in the mood, after all, it's the studios themselves that have been denying me the ability to own the movie.
So it's probably a good thing that Paramount has not decided to do this with all their movie releases, just on selected titles. We'll see if this improves their revenue, or if this actually helps to decrease their DVD revenues (which still account for most of their income from the home video market).
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Now I've been critical of this kind of strategy in the past, even before Blu-ray was released, as studios have been trying forever to have a system where the sell-through DVD version can be delayed for sale in order to gain better rental agreements and income. The "rental only" DVD version of movies (versions without extra features) were part of this plan, which has since failed quite miserably. Limiting the ability to purchase movies will not help rentals, only piracy.
The only difference now is that Blu-ray's in the mix and it would be suicide to delay the sale of the Blu-ray version along with the DVD version, not for such a new format and not when profits are up for the format. But the problem remains that by delaying the sell-through DVD version, to artificially inflate DVD rental and Blu-ray income, it's only going to drive more people to pirate movies. Let's imagine someone who wants to own the movie, not rent it, but don't have Blu-ray - they will see the Blu-ray version being sold at stores, and the movie available for rent, and they will be thinking to themselves, why do I have to wait 8 week to get the "privilege" to fork over my hard earned cash to studios? Why not just torrent it, and then buy later if I'm still in the mood, after all, it's the studios themselves that have been denying me the ability to own the movie.
So it's probably a good thing that Paramount has not decided to do this with all their movie releases, just on selected titles. We'll see if this improves their revenue, or if this actually helps to decrease their DVD revenues (which still account for most of their income from the home video market).
More:
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