If you're a DirecTV subscriber, word is you may soon be among the first guinea pigs in the latest Hollywood scheme to boost revenue in the face of dwindling DVD sales: "premium" video-on-demand movies that arrive just two months after their theatrical debuts, for $30 a pop.
We've been hearing rumblings of such "premium" VOD offerings for months now, with various reports last year claiming that Hollywood studios such as Disney, Sony, and Warner Brothers were talking to the likes of Time Warner Cable about early-release, on-demand movies for anywhere from $30 to $50 each.
Now comes word that satellite TV operator DirecTV may beat its cable competitors to the punch, with the Los Angeles Times' Company Town blog reporting that the carrier is in "advanced talks" to offer $30 on-demand movies from such major studios 20th Century Fox, Sony, and Warners as early as this June.
Why pay $30 for an on-demand movie, you ask? Well, the idea is that these "premium" VOD flicks would be available just 60 days after they debut in theaters, a month earlier than their typical DVD/Blu-ray street dates.
Some of the biggest Hollywood moguls are said to be pretty jazzed about the idea, with Company Town reporting that Disney chief Bob Iger and Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes think premium on-demand movies might bring in "untapped revenue" in the face of plummeting DVD and Blu-ray sales, while also providing an "alternative" to downloading the latest titles from BitTorrent sites.
Well, perhaps, but try telling that to the nation's theater owners, who fear (as Company Town points out) that shrinking the usual 90-day theatrical release window for the biggest blockbusters may slash into their own profits.
Of course, the holy grail for home viewers would be on-demand movies that land on cable or satellite the day they arrive in theaters.
But while DirecTV CEO Michael White has reportedly floated the ideal of premium on-demand movies that arrive in as little as four to six weeks after their debut in theaters (a proposal that has unsurprisingly has movie theater owners seeing red, by the way), neither the studios nor pay-TV operators appear to be seriously talking about "day-and-date" on-demand movies—or at least not yet, according to Company Town.
Then again, if you really must see "Transformers 4" at home on Day One—and money is no object—there are always luxury video services like Prima Cinema, which is reportedly looking to charge $500 for first-run movies after a whopping $20,000 setup fee. Yikes.
In any case, here's the central question: would you cough up $30 for an on-demand movie just for the privilege of seeing it a month before it arrives on DVD?
Before you slam the door on the idea, consider this: a $30 on-demand movie for, say, a family of four might end up being a bargain compared to paying $10 each for tickets and $10 for a (single) bucket of popcorn, not to mention the cost of a tank of gas, parking, dinner, and so on.
But the prospect of $30 video-on-demand movies becomes less and less enticing (if you ask me) the closer you get to the eventual DVD release—particularly for those of us with lengthy Netflix queues and access to thousands of streaming movies via iTunes, Xbox Live, Vudu, and Amazon. Personally, I'd rather save my cash and wait one more month.
That's just me, though—what about you? Would you pay $30 to watch, say, "Hall Pass" on-demand a month before it arrives on DVD? If not "Hall Pass," what about the next "Spider-Man" movie, or the latest from Christopher Nolan?
Related:
DirecTV poised to launch premium video-on-demand as theater executives voice outrage [Company Town]
We've been hearing rumblings of such "premium" VOD offerings for months now, with various reports last year claiming that Hollywood studios such as Disney, Sony, and Warner Brothers were talking to the likes of Time Warner Cable about early-release, on-demand movies for anywhere from $30 to $50 each.
Now comes word that satellite TV operator DirecTV may beat its cable competitors to the punch, with the Los Angeles Times' Company Town blog reporting that the carrier is in "advanced talks" to offer $30 on-demand movies from such major studios 20th Century Fox, Sony, and Warners as early as this June.
Why pay $30 for an on-demand movie, you ask? Well, the idea is that these "premium" VOD flicks would be available just 60 days after they debut in theaters, a month earlier than their typical DVD/Blu-ray street dates.
Some of the biggest Hollywood moguls are said to be pretty jazzed about the idea, with Company Town reporting that Disney chief Bob Iger and Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes think premium on-demand movies might bring in "untapped revenue" in the face of plummeting DVD and Blu-ray sales, while also providing an "alternative" to downloading the latest titles from BitTorrent sites.
Well, perhaps, but try telling that to the nation's theater owners, who fear (as Company Town points out) that shrinking the usual 90-day theatrical release window for the biggest blockbusters may slash into their own profits.
Of course, the holy grail for home viewers would be on-demand movies that land on cable or satellite the day they arrive in theaters.
But while DirecTV CEO Michael White has reportedly floated the ideal of premium on-demand movies that arrive in as little as four to six weeks after their debut in theaters (a proposal that has unsurprisingly has movie theater owners seeing red, by the way), neither the studios nor pay-TV operators appear to be seriously talking about "day-and-date" on-demand movies—or at least not yet, according to Company Town.
Then again, if you really must see "Transformers 4" at home on Day One—and money is no object—there are always luxury video services like Prima Cinema, which is reportedly looking to charge $500 for first-run movies after a whopping $20,000 setup fee. Yikes.
In any case, here's the central question: would you cough up $30 for an on-demand movie just for the privilege of seeing it a month before it arrives on DVD?
Before you slam the door on the idea, consider this: a $30 on-demand movie for, say, a family of four might end up being a bargain compared to paying $10 each for tickets and $10 for a (single) bucket of popcorn, not to mention the cost of a tank of gas, parking, dinner, and so on.
But the prospect of $30 video-on-demand movies becomes less and less enticing (if you ask me) the closer you get to the eventual DVD release—particularly for those of us with lengthy Netflix queues and access to thousands of streaming movies via iTunes, Xbox Live, Vudu, and Amazon. Personally, I'd rather save my cash and wait one more month.
That's just me, though—what about you? Would you pay $30 to watch, say, "Hall Pass" on-demand a month before it arrives on DVD? If not "Hall Pass," what about the next "Spider-Man" movie, or the latest from Christopher Nolan?
Related:
DirecTV poised to launch premium video-on-demand as theater executives voice outrage [Company Town]
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