No – not a blog about the sparkling glass front on Warner’s offices on Theobald Road (though people do dig those Harry Potter house emblems) but a more serious affair altogether.
As of, well, nowish, Warner Bros. is dramatically shrinking the gap between its DVD releases of new films, and the availability of those films on VOD services (that’s Sky Box Office, Virgin Media, BT Vision and Xbox Live to you and me) according to this story in the FT.
Whereas there used to be a 90-day delay between a film hitting DVD and then being available on cable and satellite, that gap is now set to shrink to 14 days, or even simultaneous day-and-date releases.
This kind of model has been tried before – Soderbergh had a crack releasing Bubble in cinemas, on DVD and on cable simultaneously, and last year Ben Stiller’s Night at the Museum drastically cut its expected DVD release date. Those moves didn’t go down well because they affected distributors’ takings, and in most cases if the distributors aren’t happy the studios will do what they say.
But this is different. There’s no question that Warner Bros.’ move will effect cinematic runs – quite the contrary; they say that this new strategy will actually help prevent piracy and so bolster the box office all round. “There has been no cannibalisation,” says Marc Gareton, head of international digital distribution, “in fact the reverse. In the States, we have seen a 51 per cent increase in sales of films on VOD and an increase of about six per cent in DVD sales.”
Another new policy will see DVDs packaged with digital copies, to encourage people to ‘go legal’ if they do (for some dumb reason) want to watch their movies on a laptop or iPod. I Am Legend, released on April 21, will be the first film to get this treatment.
The times, hey? They are a-changing.
