Could Wal-Mart Slow Down The Video Download Market?
from the perhaps-maybe dept
A few years ago, we had a post saying that it wasn't the record labels that had slowed the move to authorized digital downloads of music, but the music retailers, like Tower Records, who were fighting to keep authorized music offline. It was only as those retailers started declaring bankruptcy, that the labels starting focusing on authorized music download sites. Well, as we move to downloadable movies, will the retailers get in the way again? Rajesh writes in to point to an interesting paragraph mixed in with an otherwise uninteresting Reuters article on various attempts at building a movie download site: Wal-Mart has made it clear to the studios that they don't like the idea of movie downloads. Of course, Wal-Mart is a huge retailer when it comes to DVDs, and the studios probably don't want to piss off Wal-Mart. So, will that mean that they'll hold off from embracing movie downloads? That might be difficult. They've already seen what happened when the recording industry resisted too long, and it seems unlikely that they'd be willing to hold back completely -- even if it upsets Wal-Mart in the short term.
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Karaoke Croaks
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/2006/07/17/k20060716000116.html
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Re:
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I wonder
The movie and music industry needs to realize they are putting out crap. Most movies now are really straight to DVD or cable quality. Most CDs have maybe 3 or 4 songs on it that are worth a crap. People don't want to spend their hard earned money of junk.
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Re: I wonder
The difference though is that porn is a lot cheaper to produce.. Porn movies don't have hollywood multimillion dollar budgets, and porn stars don't get the kind of advertising campaigns that rock stars get. Because of this, it is a lot easier to adapt to new technologies and take risks because there is less to risk.
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Video and Music and Pornography Oh My
Why?
Because different consumers of their products want to experience the product in different ways. For example, I do not want to buy music CDs because I like a broad variety of music and so I use iTunes. My wife really only listens to music in her car and has dozens of CDs to choose from. But more to the point, I will still buy Disney DVDs for the car for road trips for my kids but will likely download or Tivo the movies I want to watch.
The problem we run into here is these industries (porn excluded) want to earn the money from every consumer for every time that consumer experiences the material (like going to the movies and seeing the same movie again and again). The thought that a user might buy the movie in one format and not have to pay for the same movie in a different format is unacceptable to them.
Make the product affordable to target consumers and they will buy it in the format that is best suited to them. On the other hand, charge too much and consumers will find ways to pirate the material.
And some will buy in multi formats. Look at the Star Wars franchise. Devout fans have purchased VHS, Extended/Enhanced version VHS, DVD, Laserdisc, etc. and if Lucas re-releases again, fans will probably by again. Studios should not expect such a following for crap like Bad Santa or Rocky 27.
Wal-Mart has its own music download store and I have not doubt they will have their own video download store soon enough, regardless of their stated disdain for the technology at the moment.
~D
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Poor Little upset Wal-Mart
3 out of every 5 DVD's sold in the US come from Wal-Mart.
So they movie industry will be treading lightly around this topic !
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Re: Poor Little upset Wal-Mart
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Re: Re: Poor Little upset Wal-Mart
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These companies are just killing themselves to hold on to their old business models.
Well sorry Wal-Mart. Maybe you should have stuck to selling domestic US goods in your stores, I might have been tempted to keep shopping there. But, Alas - K-Mart's closer and there's no reason to shop Wal-Mart now, they are just like the 1000 other retail stores in my area.
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Upset the greedy B*****s!!!
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Kinda wierd
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Re: Kinda wierd
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Fear the killer Wal-mart
On a completely unrelated note, I have trouble these days figuring out why people want to buy DVDs. I bought them, sure, until I noticed that I was never watching them again -- with the steady stream of content I get from Netflix, free TV, and the Internet, I just don't find myself re-viewing old movies, no matter how much I enjoyed them the first time around. So for me (and those like me), the compelling idea isn't download-to-own (i.e. the model that Wal-mart is worried about), but download-to-rent, and I'm actually prepared to accept DRM as part of that package (though not all DRMs are created equal, of course).
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download movies
I admit I download alot of video, but it's mostly stuff I have a hard time getting in the US, or is even impossible to get, ie fansub's of japanese shows that aren't released on dvd or not released with english subtitles.
Wow, I just totally wondered through topics...
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Not surprised
The reality is that the MPAA has the only card to play here, and that card has an expiration date. At this point, the majority of movies people want to see come from the majors. If Wal*Mart chose to heavy-hand the negotiations and just stopped carrying titles from MPAA companies, then 0 out of 5 movies would be purchased from Wal*Mart. People wouldn't stop buying movies, they'd move to another distributor, or another channel.
If the MPAA sit on this too long, they're going to be competing with full-on piracy and independent movie outfits that choose to offer content online... While piracy is a bit of a problem now, competition from indie companies *really* isn't.
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Makes me think of...
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GREYING OF HAIR AND LOSS NOF HAIR DUE TO APPLICAT
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