The still changing home entertainment industry continues to mature and develop as copyright holders and movie studios struggle to try and keep up. Daily DVD/Blu-ray movie rental kiosks and video on demand (VOD) have helped turn the industry on its head, with studios now trying to prioritize physical disc sales and VOD over rental kiosks and Netflix.
The home entertainment industry helped make Blu-ray Disc the winner over HD DVD, but it is still trying to figure out rental kiosks and VOD.
Adding to the confusion is the fact that Redbox, Netflix and similar services have to wait for 28 days before renting new releases -- but VOD rental windows have shrunk to around one week.
Movie studios prefer VOD because it offers higher revenue than rental kiosks and Netflix. As it stands today, the studios collect around 70 percent of the $4.99 and $5.99 price-tag on VOD rentals. They collect about 60 percent of the revenue for VOD titles released later, on a windowed time-frame.
As VOD becomes more popular with 24-hour and 48-hour new-release window rentals, consumer spending is down and most movie studios have forced rental kiosks into 28-day rental windows.
"The studios' willingness to collapse the VOD window is a clear sign ... that the industry is admitting that DVD purchasing is disappearing," said Richard Greenfield, BTIG Research analyst, in a recent research note. "Just consider for a moment that Disney will make Toy Story 3 available for $1/day at Redbox November 2nd, while preventing consumers from spending $5 to $6 for 24 hours to watch the film on VOD!"
If you're interested in learning more about VOD offered by a certain service or channel through your digital or satellite provider, simply asking them could be helpful. Disney plans to offer a free preview of its subscription-based VOD service and you can also find most new release titles available through Amazon's Video On Demand service.
