As the movie industry shows a greater trust in streaming and video-on-demand (VOD) services, a movie theater operator group has publicly targeted VOD services.
The National Association of Theater Operators (NATO) believe premium VOD could undercut the value of heading to a movie theater to view a film. Movie studios and cable TV operators are now switching things up and will show new movie releases on VOD eight weeks after theater release -- which is still two months before a movie's release on DVD or Blu-ray.
“Collapsing windows muddies the value proposition for the consumer, blurs distinctions between theatrical and ‘straight-to-video’ and undercuts one of the important selling points for theatrical exhibition — the timeliness of the exclusive event,” the group said.
It's obvious NATO is trying to protect its best interests, but consumers don't really care if the group suffers. The movie industry has had to deal with piracy, VOD, mail-order DVDs, streaming services, and rental kiosks that fracture the market -- and Blockbuster, Netflix, and Redbox continue to try and work through the confusion.
Redbox has agreed to delay new DVD and Blu-ray rentals from Fox, Warner and Universal, as the company continues to promote its convenient and low cost kiosk service. These three movie studios are also working with Netflix under a similar 28-day DVD rental delay -- an effort to prevent cannibalizing the DVD sales market.
Blockbuster has access to rent movies the same day they are released for sale on DVD. But even with the 28-day delay, Netflix and Redbox continue to see greater success compared to Blockbuster, which is now facing a possible bankruptcy.
Interestingly, Walt Disney, Sony and Paramount Home Entertainment have decided to grant Redbox instant access to rent out new DVD releases, even though that could reduce DVD movie sales. These companies believes the 28-day sales window is ineffective, and want interested movie viewers to watch the movies as quickly as possible.
But how many release windows can the movie market sustain? At this point it looks like Hollywood studios want a window for movie theater viewing, a window for VOD viewing, a window for DVD sales, a window for DVD rental, a window for premium movie channels, then finally a release to cable television. It's getting a bit ridiculous, no?
