People familiar with the matter said the satellite TV company would likely be the first distributor to launch so-called premium VOD, through which consumers would pay about $30 to rent a movie via the Internet or cable 60 days after it opened in theaters and at least a month before it would become available on DVD.
The plan represents a significant step in Hollywood's strategy to make movies available in the home earlier and in new ways to generate fresh revenue as DVD sales continue to fall and domestic box office has been stagnant. It has previously taken a minimum of three months for films to shift from theaters into the living room.
DirecTV is looking to introduce its product by the end of June with movies from 20th Century Fox, Sony Pictures and Warner Bros. Walt Disney Pictures is also in talks to join the initiative, the people said, while Paramount Pictures and Universal Pictures are not expected to participate initially.
In a conference call with Wall Street analysts Feb. 23, DirecTV Chief Executive Michael White said his company was talking to studios about launching a "trial" by the middle of the year in which "perhaps we'll try something that's four to six weeks from theatrical release."
A spokesman for DirecTV, the nation's second-largest pay television provider with 19.2 million subscribers, declined to discuss the VOD plans. White's statement set off alarm bells in the exhibition community, however, where top executive believe such a shortening of the wait to see a movie at home would discourage consumers from going to theaters.
"If a film has a four-to-six week window to a home, we're not going to give it screen time," said Amy Miles, chief executive of the nation's largest theater chain, Regal Entertainment. "That's outside the realm of any conversation we have had with the studios."
Gerry Lopez, chief executive of second-largest theater chain, AMC Entertainment, was equally adamant. "We do not intend to screen movies released under such circumstances," he said. "We understand the problem that studios are facing when DVD sales are nosediving, but we don't see premium VOD as any kind of solution."
People close to the six biggest Hollywood studios have said they aren't considering VOD earlier than eight weeks. But while theater owners aren't threatening to boycott releases under such a scenario, they have said that even that amount of time would be destructive to the box office business.
Thank you Los Angeles Times
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