blu-ray releases unaffected by Fox's new barebone rental strategy

[jw]

...

Fox differentiates sales, rental DVDs by added-value

Slumdog Millionaire, Marley & Me first titles under new strategy

By Susanne Ault -- Video Business, 3/5/2009

MARCH 5 | 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, in an effort to invigorate slack DVD sales, is creating two classes of discs: premium versions with added-value material such as digital copy for the sell-through market and stripped-down offerings for rental.
Starting with March 31 releases Marley & Me and Best Picture Oscar winner Slumdog Millionaire, wholesalers will be “authorized to sell rental accounts only the rental SKUs and to sell retail accounts only the retail SKUs,” according to a letter sent to accounts by Fox senior VP of sales Don Jeffries and obtained by VB. Fox will impose the same restrictions on direct accounts, according to the letter.
The rental DVD of Slumdog, for instance, carries only the movie and trailers, but the retail DVD also has special features including deleted scenes and commentaries. The rental Blu-ray Disc does have the bonus features, but the retail Blu-ray adds digital copy.
There are variations by title, however. Marley & Me, for example, has special features on both the retail and rental DVDs. The Marley Blu-ray also carries bonus features, but the retail Blu-ray is a combo pack with a DVD movie and digital copy.
Other titles being released under the new strategy are The Day the Earth Stood Still, due in stores April 7 (prebook March 11); The Wrestler and Notorious on April 21 (prebook March 25); and Bride Wars, April 28 (prebook April 1).

Looks like they are going after the cash cow, DVD and not messing with blu-rays yet


I know this was posted somewhat off topic, but this is a better article and explains the effect on blu-ray

[SkantDragon]

Fox will be releasing seven versions:

Slumdog Millionaire Starter Edition
Slumdog Millionaire Home Basic Edition
Slumdog Millionaire Home Premium Edition
Slumdog Millionaire OEM Edition
Slumdog Millionaire Business Edition
Slumdog Millionaire Enterprise Edition
Slumdog Millionaire Ultimate Edition

[Beast]

It makes sense. And it's not really all that new of a tactic.

When ever there is a 1-Disc Barebones release alongside a 2-Disc Special Edition, rental shops usually only get the 1-Discers. Plus this also cuts down on people waiting and buying used from the video stores, since they won't have the extras. It makes good business sense especially in the current economy when companies need to guarentee they don't start recording losses. I'm expecting further incentives like this.

[Zombienietzsche]

Originally Posted by SkantDragon

Fox will be releasing seven versions:

Slumdog Millionaire Starter Edition
Slumdog Millionaire Home Basic Edition
Slumdog Millionaire Home Premium Edition
Slumdog Millionaire OEM Edition
Slumdog Millionaire Business Edition
Slumdog Millionaire Enterprise Edition
Slumdog Millionaire Ultimate Edition

Actually it would be more like

Slumdog Millionaire 1 disc award edition
Slumdog Millionaire 2 disc bonus edition
Slumdog Millionaire international cut
Slumdog Millionaire un-authorized directors cut
Slumdog Millionaire ultimate edition
Slumdog Millionaire director approved cut
Slumdog Millionaire final cut
Slumdog Millionaire boxed set

[Jeff Kleist]

It's not financially viable to do 2 different blu versions, especially with the additional fees. The volume just isn't high enough. Fox is simply removing incentives to buy previously viewed discs, which can be had as cheap as $3-4

[jw]

which is dumb, because the avearge joe that just wants the movie has already obtained it by other means. I forsee it hurting these big distributors who already charge alot and smaller video rental stores hitting WM and buying there. There is a Video store that already does it here

[Jeff Kleist]

which is dumb, because the avearge joe that just wants the movie has already obtained it by other means. I forsee it hurting these big distributors who already charge alot and smaller video rental stores hitting WM and buying there. There is a Video store that already does it here

A rentailer buys the discs at 7-8 dollars apiece, and then splits the rental price with the studio. Obviously the smaller people are figuring they can get enough turns on the discs to make money at $14-16.99 from walmart and then selling the previously viewed

PV discs are a huge business, and obviously fox feels it's affecting their bottom line

[Mr.Sparkle]

I don't really care for 2 reasons

1. I always rent blu ray
2. I VERY rarely watch special features on a rental, mostly due to the fact I only watch special features on movies I really care about and what not, and those types of movies are the ones I buy.

[jw]

in the same sense you dont see alot of indie rentailers getting rich either. Theres alot of rentals to pay the rent, the payroll, the startup costs, and daily operating expenses. Even Blockbuster struggles and they are on a mass scale.Takes alot of 5.00 rentals to pay that 3-4000.00 rent so PVT is the way to capitalize. I dont see anything wrong with that.

The wal-mart scenario works well if the item gets a few rents in a month and sold at a close to retail pvt price. You could get 50+ outta that one movie.

A rentailer buys the discs at 7-8 dollars apiece, and then splits the rental price with the studio.

Thats only if they are using rentrak or a similar rev sharing program. Alot of distributors are doing that now as they see the profit there and it minimizes the revenue tied up in a movie or allows them to afford more copies.

When my wife worked at Blockbuster years back, they went to a revshare program, then went back. They used VPD and paid front line 29.99 per DVD for rentals and sell thru. Thats what I was referring to the savings by going to the Wal-Mart and buying. That was 2003, I am sure the 29.99 is now 24.99 or even 21-22 but the rental price has increased since then as well.

I dont know that what Fox is trying to accomplish is good for the consumer and may just backfire, especially if rental outlets see these barebones movies hurting rental(I doubt it though as most just watch the movie and go on about their business)

[SkantDragon]

Originally Posted by Zombienietzsche

Actually it would be more like

Slumdog Millionaire 1 disc award edition
Slumdog Millionaire 2 disc bonus edition
Slumdog Millionaire international cut
Slumdog Millionaire un-authorized directors cut
Slumdog Millionaire ultimate edition
Slumdog Millionaire director approved cut
Slumdog Millionaire final cut
Slumdog Millionaire boxed set

I think you missed my joke.

I was likening it to the rediculous number of Windows Vista flavors.

[Jeff Kleist]

in the same sense you dont see alot of indie rentailers getting rich either. Theres alot of rentals to pay the rent, the payroll, the startup costs, and daily operating expenses. Even Blockbuster struggles and they are on a mass scale.Takes alot of 5.00 rentals to pay that 3-4000.00 rent so PVT is the way to capitalize. I dont see anything wrong with that.

There isn't, except in Fox's eyes because people are buying previously viewed instead of buying their new discs. It's similar to game companies trying to defuse the gamestop effect, which majorly hurts their bottom line by offering pre-order incentives, and single-use codes for things like free levels, powerful weapons and the like

[Bobby Henderson]

I'm suspicious Fox may be over-estimating what they're losing on the sales previously viewed rental DVDs.

Just from my own personal experience I tend to avoid the things regardless of the somewhat cheap price due to potential problems with the discs.

Let's face it. Lots of people are downright careless, negligent and just plain stupid in how they treat rental discs. A video store can do only so much to polish away scuffs, scratch marks and gouges on the playing surface.

Anyone who rents movies on DVD and Blu-ray has encountered damaged discs plenty of times and would be foolish if they didn't have at least some slight amount of suspicion when it comes to the quality and reliability of previously viewed discs.

Another big problem is the sale price of those discs. They aren't as cheap as many would like to think. Hastings runs the most popular rental store where I live. Their used DVDs and Blu-ray discs can often be as expensive as brand new items being sold nearby at Wal-Mart or Sam's Club. Hastings often charges full MSRP for new DVDs and Blu-ray movies.

Given the increasingly narrow profit margins for video stores, I'm a bit concerned about studios watering down the content on those discs. They may not be messing with Blu-ray now, but the option to delete extras off rental Blu-ray discs in the future would certainly still be on the table. Some of these decisions could ultimately lead to the closure of many video stores by driving customers to PPV-VOD services and/or using services like Netflix.

When it comes to renting movies, I prefer to rent them on Blu-ray from local video stores because I get a better deal than I would any VOD or downloading service. Netflix is the only attractive alternative, but I keep hearing customer complaints about very long wait times for certain Blu-ray movies to arrive in the mail. Currently, there isn't a great deal of movies being released that I'm just dying to see. My interest levels in most movies are marginal. If I have to deal with a lot of inconvenience in renting a movie on Blu-ray I may not bother with it at all and just wait until the movie winds up on HBO or something.

If I can't rent movies on BD conveniently (and with a lot of the extra material I've come to expect on such discs) it will negatively affect my movie buying habits. I rarely blind buy any Blu-ray and the same held true previously when I was buying movies on DVD format.

I hope Fox (and other movie studios) are thinking about those issues carefully.

[Jeff Kleist]

'm suspicious Fox may be over-estimating what they're losing on the sales previously viewed rental DVDs.

Just from my own personal experience I tend to avoid the things regardless of the somewhat cheap price due to potential problems with the discs.

You're a collector/enthusiast, not Joe Sixpack who goes "5 movies for $20? Awesome"

I've hit them myself in the past, and you can usually find undamaged discs in the pile if you look long enough

[Bobby Henderson]

Perhaps deals like "5 used DVDs for $20" might exist at some stores. I don't see previously viewed rental DVDs priced that way at stores like Hastings, Hollywood Video and Blockbuster. They're usually priced a good bit higher -especially if the movie is less than a few months old. Like I said earlier, I've seen some previously viewed DVD prices at Hastings and Blockbuster show prices as high or even higher than what the same movie costs at Wal-Mart.

Meanwhile, Wal-Mart has lots of new, not used, DVDs in the $5 to $7 price range. Granted, many of those are catalog titles that have been out for at least a couple years or more (not to mention movies that are pretty crappy).

Web sites like E-bay and old fashioned yard sales often yield great deals for used DVDs. I'd like to sell a good number of my DVDs. I'm not expecting to get a lot for them, but the discs are in like-new condition.

Originally Posted by Jeff Kleist

I've hit them myself in the past, and you can usually find undamaged discs in the pile if you look long enough

Unfortunately, the biggest video stores here (Hastings, Hollywood, Blockbuster) seal the packaging on their used DVDs so you can't check the discs for damage.

[AppleCrumbDlite]

i lol'd pretty hard at the opening line in this on http://www.hometheatermag.com/news/031709fox/

"Fox hates you" xD

[jw]

posted this in the OT thread
They mixed up and messed up Amazon orders
http://www.amazon.com/Slumdog-Millio...8613919&sr=8-1
Source VB

Retailers received units of Slumdog Millionaire containing wrong discs

By Susanne Ault -- Video Business, 4/1/2009

APRIL 1 | 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment’s new initiative to distribute two classes of discs for the sell-through and rental markets has stumbled out of the gate, with Amazon.com and other retailers receiving the wrong versions of March 31 release Slumdog Millionaire.
Amazon and other retailers, including Seattle’s Scarecrow Video, received rental DVDs of the Best Picture Oscar winner, with no bonus features, inside retail packaging.
In other instances, retailers that had ordered rental copies found that inside rental packaging were extras-loaded retail versions.
Amazon has posted a note on its site telling customers that many of the Slumdog Millionaire standard DVD copies are missing extras. The site also has listed a Fox hotline number, 1-888-223-4FOX, so customers can ask to have discs replaced with ones that include the special features. Callers should be directed to a Fox Web site, where they can watch missing features for free while they wait for correct discs to arrive in the mail.
“Fox regrets any inconvenience this has caused,” the Amazon post says.
The studio did not immediately comment about the problem. Fox believes the mix-up is a small, isolated problem, say sources, and that they moved quickly to remedy the situation.
Scarecrow Video buyer Mark Steiner called the listed Fox number on Tuesday to get replacement discs for ordered titles with missing extras, but he hadn’t gotten a response back from the studio as of Wednesday morning.
“We played their game, and we ordered the rental versions and put those out like we were supposed to do, and now we are not getting the right sell-through copies that we ordered,” said Steiner. “I feel like we played by the rules and got screwed.”
Steiner is especially upset because his store was betting on the acclaimed Slumdog Millionaire, which grossed $137 million in theaters, to be its hottest-performing title in March.
“We were hoping to make money on this title and now we can’t,” Steiner said. “I don’t want to send customers off with the wrong copy.”
Beginning with the releases of Marley & Me and Slumdog this week, Fox is distributing two classes of discs to stores: premium versions of its DVD and Blu-ray Disc titles with added-value material such as digital copy for the sell-through market and stripped-down offerings for rental.
Slumdog Millionaire, for example, has special features on the retail DVD but not the rental version. On Blu-ray, it has bonus features on both the rental and retail versions, but only the retail package includes digital copy.
Stores also report that Fox had issues getting its program rolling for March 31 release Marley & Me. The studio chose not to send out any standard DVD rental copies, which where to carry special features but no digital copy, apparently because it did not have time to manufacture the discs to meet street date deadlines. Instead, all stores got the retail version, which includes digital copy.
The Fox program is scheduled to run through the spring, spanning titles including The Day the Earth Stood Still, Notorious, The Wrestler and Bride Wars.
“It’s a nuisance,” said one retailer dealing with sell-through copies sent inside rental boxes for Slumdog Millionaire. “I hope this is a one-time thing, because going forward, it's Fox’s plan to keep having separate rental and retail SKUs.”

[Sammy]

Originally Posted by SkantDragon

Fox will be releasing seven versions:

Slumdog Millionaire Starter Edition
Slumdog Millionaire Home Basic Edition
Slumdog Millionaire Home Premium Edition
Slumdog Millionaire OEM Edition
Slumdog Millionaire Business Edition
Slumdog Millionaire Enterprise Edition
Slumdog Millionaire Ultimate Edition

[BigBluu]

Does this have anything to do with Blockbuster Online not having the Blu-ray versions of Slumdog or Marley & Me? Both are in my queue, but BD versions are not available. I refuse to watch anything on DVD nowadays.