Oscar-winning idea?
Four big Hollywood players are reportedly taking a punt on a premium rental service where film buffs can pay $30 to see films that they just missed in the cinema, at home.
The WSJ reported that the service will aim to pull in money by renting films that are no longer on at cinemas but not released on DVD yet either, effectively filling a gap in the film rental market.
Sony, ComCast, Time Warner and News Corp's studios are reportedly on board and will start making films available ‘soon' on Direct TV and in some ComCast cable markets.
While $30 seems a lot of money for a one-off rental, it might attract people who missed a film at a cinema and with average ticket prices apparently reaching $7.89 in 2010, the service might appeal to groups of friends who might actually be able to ‘save' some cash.
Apparently the hefty price tag will be for films which have only just stopped showing at cinemas and users will pay less when titles are a little older and presumably available from other rental sources.
The WSJ has commented that while the price might be questionable, the move shows how keen the film businesses is to take advantage or at least survive in a digital world, whereas other media peers, most notably the newspaper and music industry have struggled.
It seems Hollywood is happy with the idea of ‘windows' or time frames giving them the ability to charge different rental prices at different points of a film's life cycle- in a way not dissimilar to buying DVDs in a shop.
It is believed film buffs are comfortable with the ‘windows' concept too and are used to paying out to watch ‘must-see' films at cinemas while waiting longer to see other titles at home to save money. In fact consumers already juggle different costs of cinema tickets, on-demand services like iTunes and monthly subscriptions as well as buying actual DVDs and Blu-ray disks.
