James Delahunty
21 Jun 2010 1:16
A trade group representing movie theater operators - amusingly called NATO (National Association of Theater Owners) - ran a full page trade ad on June 16th attacking changes in the theatrical release window of movies as well as pressing studios not to adopt VOD distribution to compete with theaters.
Some cable companies and movie studios have thrown around some ideas to provide video-on-demand (VOD) access to films not long after their theatrical release and well before they land on DVD or Blu-ray. NATO warned studios that such services would undercut the value of a typical movie ticket, saying that a lot of people could view a VOD feature at the same time, with just one payment.
"Collapsing windows muddies the value proposition for the consumer, blurs distinctions between theatrical and ‘straight-to-video’ and undercuts one of the important selling points for theatrical exhibition — the timeliness of the exclusive event," NATO warned.
NATO also tapped the fears among Hollywood execs about the future of services such as Redbox, whose kiosks offer very-low-priced rentals of movies. Most Hollywood studios have enforced 28-day delays for kiosks (after DVD release) due to fears that they could hurt sales of brand new titles.
NATO questions why they would want to risk the same "profit-cannibalizing self-competition" by changing release windows or offering early-viewing via VOD services.