Movie studios have been thinking about offering digital rentals of new films just weeks after they hit theaters. Cinema chains obviously don’t like it, but the studios are not giving up on these plans just yet.
Apple is said to be one of the major companies that studios are in talks with about various ways to move ahead on this without the help of theater chains. It will be interesting to see how they do this, if it comes about.
Bloomberg says that people familiar with the matter, that even though Apple and the studios have been negotiating on this for months, say that they have been unable to reach a mutually beneficial way to create a premium movie-download project that would cost between $30 to $50. Apparently all of the leading Hollywood movie studios, with the exception of Disney, are willing to launch a new digital rental product, because they need to counter declining DVD sales. Some proposals include splitting revenue from the new premium video on demand product with the cinema chains if they play ball.
Cinema chains apparently want a long-term commitment of up to ten years in exchange for an agreement to the revenue split proposal but it sounds like the studios have rejected this. As far as deals with potential distributors like Apple, deals could be reached as soon as early as 2018. This will allow companies like Apple to sell digital downloads of major movies just two weeks after they hit theaters. Movie fans would love it, but I’;m not sure they can all get together to make it happen.
Source Ubergizmo
