By I’ll be honest, I think the current DVD and Blu-ray release setup is almost as laughably chaotic as this famous I.T. career video. I’ve never taken a single business class in my life, yet even I know the golden rule: it’s all about supply and demand. So when you have a massive amount of demand for a DVD when it first comes out, and companies fail to match it with adequate digital supply, then I think those in charge deserve all the flak they’ve received . . . for the past decade . . . without adapting sufficently. The concept that prolonging digital releases will benfit DVD sales is a concept I thought would work many years ago, but clearly it hasn’t.
Instead, some studios are considering taking a step back and prolonging video on demand releases even further, so that it would be similar to the timeline setup they discarded many years ago. At the Blu-Con event yesterday — where people gather to talk about the current and future Blu-ray market — Craig Kornblau, who has been the president of Universal Studios Home Entertainment since 1999, thought it would be wise to say this: “We don’t have…
I'll be honest, I think the current DVD and Blu-ray release setup is almost as laughably chaotic as this famous I.T. career video. I've never taken a single business class in my life, yet even I know the golden rule: it's all about supply and demand. So when you have a massive amount of demand for a DVD when it first comes out, and companies fail to match it with adequate digital supply, then I think those in charge deserve all the flak they've received . . . for the past decade . . . without adapting sufficently. The concept that prolonging digital releases will benfit DVD sales is a concept I thought would work many years ago, but clearly it hasn't.
Instead, some studios are considering taking a step back and prolonging video on demand releases even further, so that it would be similar to the timeline setup they discarded many years ago. At the Blu-Con event yesterday — where people gather to talk about the current and future Blu-ray market — Craig Kornblau, who has been the president of Universal Studios Home Entertainment since 1999, thought it would be wise to say this: "We don't have an obligation to give consumers what they want when they want it." Wow. Hit the jump to read more of the stupid things he said during the event.
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The first thing that comes to mind when he says such foolish things is that Craig Kornblau isn't even important enough to have his own Wikipedia page, yet aXXo does. That kind of sums things up from the Internet's perspective, which, you know, is what has been making Craig Kornblau look foolish for over a decade. Their logic makes sense on paper, but when movies like Transformers get illegally downloaded over 500,000 times in the first week of its release in theaters, then it's kind of hard to swallow such an arrogant quote from someone who has enough clout to say such things, yet thinks the best way to improve DVD and Blu-ray sales is to prevent us from having immediate digital access to them when they're out in stores.
If he has the balls to say something that stupid, then I have the balls to say I could do his job better than he can. As foolish as I am for saying that, it's still not as foolish as he is for saying what he said. Although, to be fair, he did admit that continuing to let people stream new releases through Netflix is something they're still considering, but that they might have to reduce the quality of those files to help boost DVD and Blu-ray sales even more. Ugh.
To make things worse, executives from Fox, Universal, and Warner all said they've seen sales increases of 10% to 15% on their new releases compared with similar past titles. This brings up a whole different topic of fans' frustrations with the movie industry. You've got executives complaining about how much damage online piracy is causing, yet you have industry executives smugly saying they're experiencing sales increases. We have to listen to them whine about how hard they have things all year, but then we see movie records broken every three months. Make up your minds, movie industry.
To further prove my point that they can't make up their minds, they went on to say that even though they want to delay video on demand release times, they're heavily considering things like this:
At the same time, the executives noted that the studios are expected to launch "premium VOD" for certain movies next year in which consumers can rent a movie within a month or two of its theatrical release and before the DVD goes on sale for as much as $20 or $30.
Awesome. So instead of watching films through Netflix like we've been doing, you'd rather strip us of that supply and replace it with a $20-$30 rental?! Are you nuts? Best Buy currently has the Toy Story 3 Blu-ray release listed at $20. To own. And keep. Why do I feel like it's easier to talk to preschoolers than it is to reason with movie executives?
Eventually Fox's Mike Dunn spoke at the event, and got a few laughs and nods when he admitted that "If you slice the pie with too many slices, no one is satisfied." Hahaha! We're laughing at you, not with you.
[Via LA Times]