Over the past few months we have run a few stories regarding VBG – the Video Buyers Group – and their opposition to Redbox. (See recent VBG coverage here, here, here and here.) For a blog like this, all news is good news, so we gladly run their stories and viewpoints here, even if we don’t agree. But, come to find out, VBG has been naughty. More on that in a minute…
First, let’s take a look at some of VBG’s claims they make against Redbox:
- Redbox is destroying the DVD industry with $1 rentals
- Redbox allows children easy access to R-rated movies
While there are more, these 2 are by far the most common, and will suffice. Let’s look at them in detail.
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Eric Wold, a financial analyist with San Francisco-based Merriman Curhan Ford, has previously stated that he likes Redbox’s short- and long-term chances in its legal battle against several major studios.
In a recent note to investors, Wold proposed the idea that Redbox could work out an arrangement with a major retailer such as Walmart, Best Buy or Target to acquire Warner, Fox and Universal titles in large quantities. The hypothetical deal would allow Redbox to get better pricing than it currently receives from other third-party resellers it obtains delayed-release titles from.
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Minneapolis-based Video Buyers Group (VBG) will be launching an anti-kiosk campaign this month in its 1,700 member stores.
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The objective of the promotion is to persuade customers that traditional stores, not $1 per night machines, offer a superior selection and rental experience.
The promotion is at least in part a bid to capitalize on the imminent delay several studios will be imposing on movies going to the kiosk rental channel. The theme of the campaign, ‘Available Here First’, is a dig at the minimum of 30 days Redbox, etc. will have to wait to obtain titles from the studios. Posters and stickers will be available to VBG members at no cost, and a small fee will be charged to other retailers that wish to participate.
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It’s been a rough year for most industries, and Hollywood has not been immune. Despite a small increase in box office take, which only accounts for about a quarter of film revenue, most studios have taken a big hit this year and one (MGM) is on the edge of bankruptcy. Consequently, the blood has run thick in the halls of Hollwood offices, with studio execs from Disney, MGM, Paramount and Universal getting the axe in recent months.
The Times Online recently ran an article profiling Donna Langley, the new co-chairman of Universal Pictures. Besides extensively discussing Langley and her daunting new assignment, the article contained some interesting commentary from Edward Jay Epstein, author of The Big Picture: the New Logic of Money and Power in Hollywood.
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Check out what’s coming to a Redbox kiosk near you on Tuesday, October 13, 2009. See anything you like? See anything missing? Let us know…
100 Feet R
Starring:
Famke Janssen,Patricia Charbonneau,Ed Westwick
Genre:
Release Year:
2008
movie details / trailer
Adoration R
Starring:
Scott Speedman,Rachel Blanchard,Arsinee Khanjian
Genre:
Release Year:
2007
movie details / trailer
American Violet PG-13
Starring:
Alfre Woodard,Nicole Beharie,Tim Blake Nelson
Genre:
Release Year:
2008
movie details / trailer
An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving NR
Starring:
Jacqueline Bisset,Tatiana Maslany
Genre:
Release Year:
2008
movie details / trailer
Every Little Step PG-13
Starring:
Bob Avian,Ramon Flowers
Genre:
Release Year:
2008
movie details / trailer
Land of the Lost PG-13
Starring:
Anna Friel,Will Ferrell
Genre:
Release Year:
2009
movie details / trailer
Playmobil: The Secret Of Pirate Island NR
Starring:
NA
Genre:
Release Year:
2009
movie details / trailer
The Haunted Airman R
Starring:
Robert Pattinson,Julian Sands,Rachael Stirling
Genre:
Release Year:
2006
movie details / trailer
The Proposal PG-13
Starring:
Ryan Reynolds,Sandra Bullock
Genre:
Release Year:
2009
movie details / trailer
It’s no secret that the DVD retail industry is in trouble. Disc sales have posted double-digit declines this year, and studios are panicked and looking around for a scapegoat. I want to discuss one bright spot in all the gloom: rentals. As we have discussed in earlier posts, while sales of discs have been dropping, rentals are up.
Despite a prolonged recession that has stifled most other sectors, box office receipts are actually on track to beat last year’s. This, combined with the uptick in rentals suggests a simple fact: people are still WATCHING movies, they just don’t want to OWN them anymore.
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A few weeks back, we posted some comments by Netflix CEO Reed Hastings in which he said the following about the future of the DVD format:
“There will be people doing DVD-by-mail in 15 or 20 years, so I think DVD will last a long time. Our best guess is that DVD will peak for us in 5 or so years. But it is continuing to grow.”
In an interview with the Motley Fool this week, however, Hastings shortened his estimate of DVD’s remaining time as Netflix’s “primary delivery format” to two years. Hastings went on to reaffirm statements that he has made earlier that DVD would stick around in some form for at least a decade or more.
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Hollywood industry journal The Wrap, hot on the heels of an editorial from Redbox’s Mitch Lowe, has published a counterpoint essay by Hastings Entertainment CEO John Marmaduke. In his remarks, Marmaduke says he understands Lowe’s enthusiasm for Redbox’s pricing model, but asserts that drastic changes must be made to “prevent the devaluation of new entertainment products”.
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The other day we were able to hear some commentary from Redbox CEO Mitch Lowe about his company’s position in the current drama with the studios. Now comes some further insight from the CEO of Redbox’s parent company, Coinstar. At a New York investors conference yesterday, Coinstar CEO Paul Davis said that Redbox is in “daily negotiations with studios in an attempt to reach a distribution agreement”.
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Another day, another new angle in the Redbox vs. Hollywood saga. The latest comes to us from Eric Wold, an analyst with financial services firm Merriman Curhan Ford. Wold is quoted in an article by Home Media magazine discussing his take on the possible outcome of Redbox’s quarrel with several Hollywood studios.
In the article, Wold speculates that if Fox and Warner are successful in having the Redbox lawsuits dismissed, it would represent a “worst case scenario” for the kiosk vendor, and could cause investors to “question the kiosk movie rental operator’s business model and sustainability”. Wold went on to say, however, that he doubts the suits will be thrown out.
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