Warner lines up with Fox, Uni on kiosk window

[Rich86]

Originally Posted by ack_bak

This is going to hurt DVD more than Blu-Ray IMHO, but this is pretty big news IMHO and should be debated.

Redbox must have their lawyers scrambling. And I hope Redbox wins... This sounds like a cartel....

Oh yeah - nothing like a small herd of movie studios coercing to drive someone out of business or pick their pockets . . should be fun . . . I hope the studios get their butts kicked.

[furriballs]

Originally Posted by recmasters

Wait... I thought was Niche?

Only when it suits his particular argument.

[Rich86]

Originally Posted by furriballs

Surely that would never happen around here.

More blah, blah, blah and lots of speculation. We have a few Redbox locations here where I live, and believe me, I'd never rent anything from them. The locations that they are springing up in aren't anywhere I'd want to go, and I don't fancy getting mugged while waiting on a disc to pop out of a machine in some skanky, dimly lit entrance way to a Walmart.

We have lots of Redbox rental kiosks here in the San Fran bay area. They are inside stores, usually grocery stores and larger drug stores as well as Walmarts. They are clean, well-lit, in excellent locations, well stocked, and a terrific easy to use and cost effective rental facility for consumers. I love them - beats the crap out of going to Blockbuster any day of the week.
And it is a great way to view a title before considering buying it on blu-ray.

[Merrick97]

Well, I can understand why they are doing it. Redbox is pretty much the number one enemy of all the studios and its their view that it has set people's expectations of rental prices to ridiculously low.

Jeff Kleist speculated that Redbox was operating its business at a loss so that they could just sale the company off at a later time.

[ack_bak]

Originally Posted by furriballs

What's to debate? The studios don't have to sell anything to Redbox, or anyone else, if they don't want to. I don't believe there's a law saying that Fox or WB has to sell discs to Redbox. Now if they have a contract, that's different.

Still don't see anything smacki-down about this, but I'm sure some will find a way to tie it to Blu ray and its demise.

Did you read the article? The studios are going to punish wholesalers who sell to Redbox as well outside of the window.

Like I said, this has zero effect on my as I get my rentals through Netflix (and occasionally at Blockbuster in the store), but this is going to hurt consumers. Especially in a bad economy.

It just stinks.

As Rich mentioned I can guarantee you the studios are trying to force Redbox to raise prices and and force a collective bargaining agreement of some kind.

[furriballs]

Originally Posted by Rich86

We have lots of Redbox rental kiosks here in the San Fran bay area. They are inside stores, usually grocery stores and larger drug stores as well as Walmarts. They are clean, well-lit, in excellent locations, well stocked, and a terrific easy to use and cost effective rental facility for consumers.

Oh but of course. I wouldn't expect anything different in your world.

Here they are in a dingy corner, near the gumball machines, newspaper racks, free papers racks, and returned shopping carts in the dimly lit area that smells like pee. If that's your thing, hey, knock yourself out. Me, I'd rather punch myself in the balls before doing business in that environment.

[furriballs]

Originally Posted by ack_bak

Did you read the article? The studios are going to punish wholesalers who sell to Redbox as well outside of the window.

Yes I read the article. And like I said, it's their product. They can market and sell it however they want. And if they feel that punishing wholesalers who sell to Redbox is in their best interest, then have at it. Might not make any sense to you or me, but maybe it does to them.

Like you, doesn't bother me either. I either rent from online or I just buy the disc(s) and I'm done.

[ack_bak]

I can tell you this much. There are lots of people (consumers) who are going to be pissed about this. Not advocating it, but expect more torrent downloading than ever before.

[ack_bak]

One more thing. Redbox recently wrote a big check to Sony for the right to release their content via their machines. My guess is that Redbox was trying to negotiate with the other studios, the studios wanted too much money, and the deals did not get done. Now the studios are putting the screws to Redbox.

On the bright side, this may pump more money into my local Blockbuster and maybe they will carry more BD titles...

[Taffy]

I'm sure that Redbox can easily circumvent this blatant blood sucking greedy move by certain studios by simply buying DVDs through established sources such as Walmart. I think they're already doing this with Universal titles. Three cheers for consumer friendly Redbox: huzzah...huzzah...huzzah.

[Rich86]

Originally Posted by Merrick97

Well, I can understand why they are doing it. Redbox is pretty much the number one enemy of all the studios and its their view that it has set people's expectations of rental prices to ridiculously low.

Jeff Kleist speculated that Redbox was operating its business at a loss so that they could just sale the company off at a later time.

They seem to be struggling along OK . . .

http://redboxpressroom.com/

I believe it is Rebox's significant success that is worrying the movie studios. I give Sony & Lionsgate credit - they decided to work out a deal and capitalize on how well Redbox is doing. The other studios should do the same. Maybe they are & this is just act 1 of the little play . . .

[Rich86]

Originally Posted by furriballs

Oh but of course. I wouldn't expect anything different in your world.

Here they are in a dingy corner, near the gumball machines, newspaper racks, free papers racks, and returned shopping carts in the dimly lit area that smells like pee. If that's your thing, hey, knock yourself out. Me, I'd rather punch myself in the balls before doing business in that environment.

I'm sorry if that is the environment you find them in where you live - it just isn't that way here, thankfully. The machine I use mostly is in a relatively newly remodeled grocery store, away from the entrance, next to a display with pretzels, chips and soda (surprise surprise, right?).

[GizmoDVD]

Originally Posted by ack_bak

I can tell you this much. There are lots of people (consumers) who are going to be pissed about this. Not advocating it, but expect more torrent downloading than ever before.

I doubt many of them even know how to uninstall pop-up software....I don't think torrenting is in their future.

[ack_bak]

Originally Posted by GizmoDVD

I doubt many of them even know how to uninstall pop-up software....I don't think torrenting is in their future.

Around me, I see lots of young people renting at Redbox. And trust me, starting at age 13 and up, these kids are computer savy and can figure out how to download a pirated movie. Just google it...

[The_Doctor]

Originally Posted by Lee Stewart

Warner lines up with Fox, Uni on kiosk window



http://www.videobusiness.com/article...?desc=topstory

Srudio war!

Hell if this is what the studios want to do they need to quite physical discs and go strait to Digital downloads. That is the only way they'll be happy.

Physical medium isn't dying off naturally, it's been slowly smothered to death by some greedy idiots.

There was only one growth in the DVD market and that was rentals. Now that is not good enough cause the studio want more. If they priced the product better the first week they might get more sales, it isn't renters hurting their bottom line it is themselves.

There may be one draw back to this and this is people who use the service might take it personally, and that could give the studios some unwanted flack.