Warner Brothers to Offer Online Rentals Alongside DVD Releases
When Steve Jobs announced the iTunes Rental store at Macworld this year, he acknowledged that the rentals would appear about 30 days after the DVD release. We later noticed, however, that some iTunes movie rentals had started appearing much earlier than the expected 30-day delay. As it turns out, Warner Brothers was experimenting with this approach for the last few months, and found that DVD rentals only fell by 3-5 percent while DVD sales actually increased when on-demand videos were offered earlier.
Mr. Bewkes boasted to investors that the shift from DVDs to digital distribution, on the "day and date" of DVD release, will be better for Warner Brothers because it will eliminate some of the costs of manufacturing and distributing discs.
This shift, of course, is good for customers who are given more flexibility in purchasing video content.Top Rated Comments
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Mr. Bewkes boasted to investors that the shift from DVDs to digital distribution, on the “day and date” of DVD release, will be better for Warner Brothers because it will eliminate some of the costs of manufacturing and distributing discs.
“Taking a customer and moving that person over from rental-physical over moving them to VOD day-and-date is like a 60 to 70 percent margin instead of a 20 to 30,” Mr. Bewkes said. “So it’s about a three-to-one trade.”
Of course, most of the rest of us hit the Age of Reason in the mid-1600's, but it's nice to know they're making progress...
I just can't get into the renting for my iPod thing.
I really think its geared more toward the AppleTV users. I rented a movie and my 30 days were going to be up while I was out of town, so I transfered the movie to my phone, and I have to say, it was a pain in the ass to watch.
Holy Crap! Someone in a corner office actually looked at the math!
Of course, most of the rest of us hit the Age of Reason in the mid-1600's, but it's nice to know they're making progress...
I am happy to hear this. Hopefully other companies will buy in to this "make a better profit" thing and customers will have more options. Ahhh, good ol' capitalism.
Someone must have sat him through econ 101
Why only rental? Give us the option to buy on iTunes the day of as well. What are they scared of?
Why not release on iTunes the same day the movie comes out in the cinema? Now *that* would be brave!
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