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Well folks, you knew it was bound to happen somehow, someway...
The Hollywood studios, in an effort to maximize their profits yearly, have always advocated a quicker release to DVD for sale of their movies. Theaters, in an effort to protect THEIR businesses (at least in the past before flat fees became more standard), advocated keeping movies in theaters a little longer and delaying release to retail or rental market. Generally speaking, the "release window" as it is called, is somewhere in the neighborhood of 4.5 months. What does this mean? Simply put, you generally have to wait about four and a half months after a movie is released in theaters before it will be available for rent or purchase (sometimes longer).
Why does this matter to the deaf and hard of hearing? Well, obviously, we have been a big source of the uptick in rental services such as Netflix, Redbox, and so on due to a lack of good access to captioned movies in the theaters. If I only had a nickel for everytime someone told me "Well, I just wait for it to go to DVD and rent it", I'd not only be a very wealthy man, I'd probably have my OWN theater (fully accessible, of course).
Captioned movie access arguments and rental "bonus features" fiascos notwithstanding, there has long been a happy, if not somewhat tenous, middle ground reached with the current "release window". While the deaf and hard of hearing often feel slighted for having to wait that long for access to captioned versions of hit movies and movies they want to see, they've been able to somewhat live with it. Movie theaters make their money, Hollywood studios make theirs, everyone is happy, right?
Not so fast, pardner! According to the article at this link:
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/oc
Hollywood, distraught over losing one more penny than they have to to rental companies, are considering creating a NEW "Rental only" release window, delaying the release to rental companies such as Netflix and Redbox by a few MORE weeks, in hopes that it will push people to BUY more DVD's at retail (and therefore HIGHER PROFITS FOR THEM) than rent them.
Let's see, they sell them, and make money. They sell them to rental companies...and make money (not to mention, it is still THEIR product being viewed)....But because their retail DVD sales are down, they want to possibly make us consumers WAIT EVEN LONGER TO RENT...
Astounding, just astounding, the amount of greed that pervades that industry. Instead of being creative and making up for retail DVD sales drops through innovative licensing of products, perhaps decreasing the amount spent on marketing (I mean, seriously, a $50,000 a year lackey can generate a HUGE marketing presence in today's internet age), and so forth and so on, they are hoping to basically FORCE us to either buy, or wait a little longer to rent. I mean, after all, what's 4.5 months, right? If the deaf, hard of hearing, and the other consumers are willing to wait THAT long, surely they can wait a little longer (for those of you humor-challenged readers, that was SARCASM on my part).
*SIGH* Why do I feel like banging my head on my desk? Just when they begin to show a LICK of common sense (such as their quick reaction to the outrage of captions not being on "Up" rental versions, however laughable the excuse was for it happening in the first place), they go and pull another bone-headed stunt like this.
They are hoping to get the rental companies to go along with this by perhaps dropping the price they charge them to purchase movies to rent because, if successful, this new release window they are discussing will decrease rentals and hurt the bottom line of companies like Netflix and Redbox. Same old "in the box" thinking that has typified the corporate structures of Hollywood studios for years now.
Hey fellas, here is a free suggestion from me to you... Why don't you try to GROW your market some by offering more Open Captioned movies in areas underserved in that category? That's a start, at least. Or even better yet, work with your exhibitor partners (theaters) and help make it easier and cheaper to offer captions in the theaters instead of squeezing them for more money with heavy-handed tactics such as the tacit collusion to shift to all digital and forcing them to shoulder the heavier end of the burden while YOUR profits grow even more from this conversion than THEIRS do?
And so it goes...fight another day folks. I hope all my great readers have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving break with their loved ones.
Eddie
The Hollywood studios, in an effort to maximize their profits yearly, have always advocated a quicker release to DVD for sale of their movies. Theaters, in an effort to protect THEIR businesses (at least in the past before flat fees became more standard), advocated keeping movies in theaters a little longer and delaying release to retail or rental market. Generally speaking, the "release window" as it is called, is somewhere in the neighborhood of 4.5 months. What does this mean? Simply put, you generally have to wait about four and a half months after a movie is released in theaters before it will be available for rent or purchase (sometimes longer).
Why does this matter to the deaf and hard of hearing? Well, obviously, we have been a big source of the uptick in rental services such as Netflix, Redbox, and so on due to a lack of good access to captioned movies in the theaters. If I only had a nickel for everytime someone told me "Well, I just wait for it to go to DVD and rent it", I'd not only be a very wealthy man, I'd probably have my OWN theater (fully accessible, of course).
Captioned movie access arguments and rental "bonus features" fiascos notwithstanding, there has long been a happy, if not somewhat tenous, middle ground reached with the current "release window". While the deaf and hard of hearing often feel slighted for having to wait that long for access to captioned versions of hit movies and movies they want to see, they've been able to somewhat live with it. Movie theaters make their money, Hollywood studios make theirs, everyone is happy, right?
Not so fast, pardner! According to the article at this link:
http://articles.latimes.com/2009/oc
Hollywood, distraught over losing one more penny than they have to to rental companies, are considering creating a NEW "Rental only" release window, delaying the release to rental companies such as Netflix and Redbox by a few MORE weeks, in hopes that it will push people to BUY more DVD's at retail (and therefore HIGHER PROFITS FOR THEM) than rent them.
Let's see, they sell them, and make money. They sell them to rental companies...and make money (not to mention, it is still THEIR product being viewed)....But because their retail DVD sales are down, they want to possibly make us consumers WAIT EVEN LONGER TO RENT...
Astounding, just astounding, the amount of greed that pervades that industry. Instead of being creative and making up for retail DVD sales drops through innovative licensing of products, perhaps decreasing the amount spent on marketing (I mean, seriously, a $50,000 a year lackey can generate a HUGE marketing presence in today's internet age), and so forth and so on, they are hoping to basically FORCE us to either buy, or wait a little longer to rent. I mean, after all, what's 4.5 months, right? If the deaf, hard of hearing, and the other consumers are willing to wait THAT long, surely they can wait a little longer (for those of you humor-challenged readers, that was SARCASM on my part).
*SIGH* Why do I feel like banging my head on my desk? Just when they begin to show a LICK of common sense (such as their quick reaction to the outrage of captions not being on "Up" rental versions, however laughable the excuse was for it happening in the first place), they go and pull another bone-headed stunt like this.
They are hoping to get the rental companies to go along with this by perhaps dropping the price they charge them to purchase movies to rent because, if successful, this new release window they are discussing will decrease rentals and hurt the bottom line of companies like Netflix and Redbox. Same old "in the box" thinking that has typified the corporate structures of Hollywood studios for years now.
Hey fellas, here is a free suggestion from me to you... Why don't you try to GROW your market some by offering more Open Captioned movies in areas underserved in that category? That's a start, at least. Or even better yet, work with your exhibitor partners (theaters) and help make it easier and cheaper to offer captions in the theaters instead of squeezing them for more money with heavy-handed tactics such as the tacit collusion to shift to all digital and forcing them to shoulder the heavier end of the burden while YOUR profits grow even more from this conversion than THEIRS do?
And so it goes...fight another day folks. I hope all my great readers have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving break with their loved ones.
Eddie
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