Would you pay your cable provider 17 dollars to watch a movie in your home in a pay per view form? What if it was not released on normal PPV yet and wont be for over a month? Still not convinced? What if after you watched it, as part of the deal, you received the DVD a few days later in the mail for your permanent collection? Yeah, not bad. This is the proposal from Comcast cable provider that is being pitched to the studios right now. They want a piece of the DVD rental pie and they just might have something to offer. The PPV paradigm is already a half billion dollar a year operation for Comcast, but with this new twist, they are hoping to turn it into a killer application.
The only snafu in the entire idea is the fact that only 40% of Comcast cable subscribers have the required digital box at this point in time. But still, that is 40% of 21 million customers which is not too bad. DirecTV and Dish, are you listening?
For a fee of about $17, the subscriber could call up the movie for one immediate video-on-demand showing. Two days later, the DVD of Virgin shows up in the mailbox for the subscriber's permanent collection. Universal Studios Home Entertainment hasn't announced an exact DVD release date for Virgin, but it'll probably hit Blockbuster within four months of its Aug. 19 theatrical premiere. If the Virgin DVD gets to the stores in mid-December, Comcast's PPV run would most likely begin in late-January/early February. Russ Crupnick, media analyst with the NPD Group, a marketing/research company, dubs this strategy "instant rental with ownership." |
Look out Blockbuster! If the cable companies can cut deals for providing movies in this instant fashion, with a physical backup coming in the mail, it would be enough for me to hit the PPV button for the very first time. How about you?
Source: Video Business
