The leading film studios have split over the question of whether to release movies on video-on-demand (VOD) on the same day they do so on DVD, the New York Post reported today (Tuesday). According to the newspaper, Warner Bros. and Sony want to do a "day and escort" release; Paramount, Disney and 20th Century Fox do not. In an question with the newspaper, Peter Chernin, COO of News Crop, the parent company of Fox, said, "We still have some concerns that it may cannibalise our DVD business. ... What's paramount in our mind is protecting our overall margins, and we sure enough don't want to be overly strong-growing until we're sure that any move like that is departure to be margin accretive." On the other hand, Jeff Bewkes, CEO of Time Warner, the owner of Warner Bros., said that its tests indicate there is no reason for such concern. "We think that since we haven't seen cannibalization on sell-through, that it's loss to increase margins and profitability going to day-and-date," Bewkes said.
12/08/2008
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