Simultaneous releases? Yes please
The FT carried a front page (of their companies section) story today about report from Cass Business School showing that movie studios would get a 16% increase in revenues if they did simultaneous DVD/ theater/ on-demand movie releases.
I know next to nothing about the movie industry (as an industry) but it obviously has echoes of so many of the debates that have gone on in the newspaper industry. It’s that old giving customers what they want vs protecting a tried-and-tested, keep-the-supply-chain-happy, (but rapidly arcane looking) model.
The idea has been fiercely resisted by cinema chains but a study of 1,800 consumers in three countries found that it could transform the economics of film studios and DVD retailers.
“We talked to some of the studios and I think something is going to change,” said Thorsten Hennig-Thurau, professor of marketing at Bauhaus University and Cass Business School, and the lead researcher on the study.
The research, to be published in the Journal of Marketing in October, found that the optimum choice for studios in the US market, producing a 16.2 per cent revenue lift, would be to release films simultaneously through cinemas, DVD rental chains and video-on-demand platforms.
Speaking purely as a punter - in particular as a punter with very young children - can I say a big ‘yes, please’ to this.
Basically the current system means that most of the marketing activity for new movies is completely wasted on me - all the effort that goes into the PR and above line advertising goes over my head because I have discounted myself from the cinema release market. I might watch Film 2007, but that’s only with the same vicarious thrill I still read the odd club listings page: it’s good to know there’s someone still ‘out there’, but it might as well be happening on another planet.
But simultaneous releases?…now we’re talking. I read the review on Friday..I make a special appointment to view on Friday/Saturday night..I download/ rent/ call up on VoD whatever, and then and fall asleep in the middle with a take away curry on my lap. What could be better.?
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