Entrepreneur and HDTV pioneer Mark Cuban is, according to Wired News, ” hiring staff that could form the nucleus of a new DVD label” with the intent of “shatter[ing] Hollywood’s release window system by making first-run films available simultaneously in theaters, on cable TV, online and on DVD.” [see this previous IPD post for a discussion of potential changes in the relationship between DVD and cable PPV windows].
The label is expected to launch in January with the release of Bubble, the first in a six-part deal between Cuban’s 2929 Entertainment and director Stephen Soderbergh, according to a source familiar with the plan.
While Cuban is considered a maverick in the media business, the Wired story suggests that even major media companies are considering potentially dramatic changes in movie release windows:
Robert Iger, who has since taken the reins as CEO of The Walt Disney Co., suggested that the theatrical “window” should be snapped shut and DVDs released at the same time. “We can’t stand in the way and can’t allow tradition to stand in the way of where the consumer can go or wants to go,” Iger told analysts. “Windows in general need to change. I don’t think it’s out of the question that DVDs could be released in the same window as the theatrical release. All the old rules should be called into question because the rules of consumption have changed so dramatically.”
The Wired story closes with a reaction from theater owners, which it says “have cried foul, saying, among other things, that DVDs only sell because theatrical exhibition heightens their profile.”
“Mr. Iger knows better than to tell consumers — or Wall Street analysts — that they can have it all, everywhere, at the same time,” said John Fithian, president of the National Association of Theater Owners. “He knows there would be no viable movie theater industry in that new world — at least not a theater industry devoted to the products of Hollywood. And he should know that Hollywood studios would be just one shriveled vendor among many in that world of movies as commodities only.”
Mitch Shapiro at 1:21 PM|Comments(0)
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