Studios Rethink DVD Release Strategies To Combat Piracy. And Make More Money.

The issue of piracy in a different form. This time, as the sales of DVD make more money for the studios than the cinema releases do (last year DVD ($27bn) taking were three times those of Cinemas ($9bn)) they seem to be considering quicker or potentially simultaneous releases for films to disc. Of course there are dozens of reasons why people both love and hate the cinema, and the same goes for those shiny little discs we buy and the Home Cinema experience too.

Barry Myer of Warner Brothers spoke to the Hollywood Reporter and suggested that the current situation of the cinema being the primary market for films could switch and become the "added value" film experience instead. This would mean buying a DVD and going to the cinema if you wanted to experience it that way, rather than the DVD as a reminder or alternative to that.

Additionally, this would be an attempt to combat pirates selling camcordered VCD / DVD copies of films on the streets outside a theatre - a phenomena not so predominantly Eastern as it may have been in past years.

Michael Lynton, CEO of Sony Pictures and Peter Chernin of the Fox Group also believe this to be the situation and a possible solution. But : "Where piracy tends to thrive is where the consumer perceives that goods and services are not convenient and price is out of whack," added Mr Chernin. People do already seem think prices on DVDs are too high all too often, plus they vary so dramatically from country to country, and although the price would potentially be different if Home Cinema was the primary market (and a DVD purchase is permanent), there's a whole host of arguments against this switch of focus too. For one thing, would it change the kind of films people make?, those films that are popular? (many films rely on the Big Screen to drive the experience for example), or indeed the focus on domestic product and its' market could be lost to some extent?

In the end, the primary concern for any film fan is the film, not the format.

Via BBC. To some extent.