Content distribution: Window hopping
- Article 2 of 3
- Total Content + Media, April 2007
Content producers want to maximise selling power of DVDs, but partners in the distribution chain could suffer
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Sell-through of content is an increasingly important revenue stream for producers. Box office takings now represent just 25%-30% of film earnings, says Screen Digest senior analyst David Hancock, with DVDs taking the lion’s share of the remainder. The TV industry has also benefited from DVDs, with shows turned into money spinners they never were on the small screen.
The commercial importance of DVDs has led to the narrowing of the “window” of time that falls between programme transmission, or the theatrical distribution of content, and the release of the DVD. “Between 2001 and 2006, the window has closed from about seven months to about four months,” says Hancock. The upshot is that programmes and films remain fresh in the public eye, reducing marketing costs.
Julian Day, managing director of DVD authoring house DGP Soho, says closing the window also helps to cut piracy. “If consumers have to wait six months, they’re more likely to turn to pirated versions.” He highlights stripped down, low-price DVDs available in Russia and China a week after the US release to discourage consumers from buying pirated content (see story p.15).
But despite the incentives for content producers, that window has not shrunk to zero in most parts of the world. In part, this is because of the logistical issues of getting DVD content ready, says Day. A European-wide DVD release will potentially need 18 language tracks, something that can’t be done instantly.
Principally, though, the delay is because of other partners in the distribution chain. Broadcasters don’t want their ratings to fall because the DVD is available while the series is still airing. Cinemas don’t want their revenues undermined by customers staying at home to watch the movie on DVD.
In France, the length of the DVD window has been enshrined in law at four months to preserve exhibitors’ business.
In January, UK and German cinema chains pulled some Fox movies from their screens when the studio announced it would release the DVDs just 13 weeks after the films’ theatrical release.
As a result, although some studios would like to shrink the window to zero—“If they’re not saying it in public, they sure are in private,” says Hancock—few are showing signs.
Content producers also have incentives to keep the DVD window at a certain length.
“Cinema is a strong marketing platform,” says Hancock. “If you reduce the window, you reduce the marketing. Box office takings drop. Then you get smaller TV revenues; the price you get selling TV rights is related to box office takings.”
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