RTV71 used our news submit to tell us: 'žSo piracy helps to reduce prices. Hmmmmm." , and if we take a look into the article he spotted for us over at CNN News, then it seems that this is true.
Warner Home Video announced Thursday that it will sell cut-rate DVDs in China. This discount DVDs should be available shortly after release in the theatres, don't contain any extras and will be priced as low as US $2.65 which is still a bit more than the US $1, which have to be paid for pirated DVDs.
According to the article said Jim Cardwell, president of Warner Home Video 'But we think with earlier availability, better quality, assured quality, more sophisticated retailing and the fact that it's the real thing, that we can compete.''
With this unusual step, the company hopes to convince the Chinese government to do more to stamp out the fakes.
|  The company hopes its efforts will convince the Chinese government to do more to stamp out the fakes. ``It's very difficult for a government to pull product from its consumers when the manufacturers don't have a legitimate alternative,'' Caldwell said.
Theft in China of copyrights and patents cost Western companies an estimated $16 billion in lost sales each year. Despite sporadic arrests, counterfeit books, DVDs and music are easily available on almost every city street and even in shops. As for how Warner would justify charging U.S. consumers far more for DVDs, ``I don't that's an issue,'' Caldwell said. ``I think that historically, prices of entertainment around the world have always been different country to country.'' |
US $2.65 is nearly the price which we have to pay here, if we rent a movie for two days. I think that there wouldn't be a requirement for the companies to think about piracy and to waste money for fights against illegal file-sharing if they would sell their DVDs to such prices also in Europe and the US.
Of course, this won't happen because this would mean that they have finally lost.
Source: CNN News
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By
mickrick,
Sunday 27 February 2005 18:48
I disagree about wiping out piracy. When you get movies available months before their store date, for instance Shrek 2 retail dvd was available at least 8 months before it hit the stores, Elf around 10 months. Where is the incentive for people to wait until official store dates when this happens?
By
squinty,
Sunday 27 February 2005 20:16
This article just goes to show you how much profit is made on DVD's. Kinda sad really.
Also, I'm sure this is a temporary price change. They will introduce these rock bottom prices for a year or so to compete with pirated copies. People start buying originals instead of pirated copies, therefore lowering the demand of pirated titles and shrinking that market. After they see noticable results, they will raise the price little by little to put more in their pockets, while watching the sales figures to make sure they haven't gone too far.
"earlier availability"
Pirates have the movies out before there even in theatres!
"better quality"
My pressed movie DVD's never seem to last as long as the shitty cheap DVDs the I get for 20 cents a piece. Makes me wonder what kind of cheap shit they use. It's known that Pirated DVDs are usually better quality (except the CAMs)
"assured quality"
See Above.
"More sophisticated retailing"
Pirates have some of the most sophistimecated setups around.
"the fact that it's the real thing"
I thought that the movie/music industry was bitching about DVDs since copies of the data is the exact same as the original, aka the real thing. Besides DVDs are really only low quality copies of the master reels they make anyway.
"that we can compete."
Sadly as long as people fall for the above propeganda this will remain true.
[edited by SupremeCheddar on 28.02.2005 05:12]
By
Rhelic,
Monday 28 February 2005 15:07
In all honesty, if you look at DVD overhead as only the cost of the disc, packaging & pressing, then it costs about $2 to make a disc.
Since the movie studios already make their money back in the American & European markets, they can afford to sell the discs at next to nothing (or even at a loss) as they are trying to break into a market where they aren't selling anything at all.
If they sold new DVDs for $3 in the US, the market would collapse.
Use your head people... $15-$17 is VERY fair for a movie.
Get a job and stop whinning. And get use to the idea that minimum wage won't afford you luxuries (ex: DVDs) hence the term MINIMUM WAGE.
[edited by Rhelic on 28.02.2005 15:08]
By
DonL,
Monday 28 February 2005 22:49
Movie release is a two edged Sword, if a Movie is to have a world wide release date then a print is needed for every theater it is to be shown in! Digital is lowering the costs gradually, but the cost is still there, in the case of a blockbuster movie it is a drop in the bucket compared to advertising, but where other titles are concerned I can see that distributors have a point about delayed releases in other countries, still the costs should be evened out so as to allow release dates world wide to be closer together. We find that some movies are released for rental on DVD in the US months before they are released for screening here (Aus), how can they blame us for buying pirated movies when that's the only way of we have of seeing it now! Wait you say, well all the advertising tells us not to wait, have it now! If you don't have the cash put it on the Credit card! If they don't want us to desire the candy then don't put it on the register under our noses! There was a time when we (Aussies) would watch the Oscar's and never have heard of the nominees, let alone had the opportunity to watch any of them! (it is still the case with Emmys, although the internet and bittorent is helping there!)
)
'Use your head people... $15-$17 is VERY fair for a movie.'
you forgot something that even us salary wage working stiffs care about in that statement , u should have added 'good quality' movie in proper HD format w/ DTS ... that price is fine for me if the supply the needs I have for my samsung 42" 16:9 DLP... but the studios don't care about quality or end-user positive feedback...
it all comes down to the almighty dollar, and hollywood studios are getting too greedy, plain and simple... where are all these features (not just directors comments and 8 different languages subtitles for a DVD... i want as a consumer as most others do, high resolution, close to the original master copy, quality DVD's , not some VHS quality dub put on to a DVD..(for example, the Indiana Jones DVD set, what a sham, the quality is terrible, I thought Lucas Studios would at least remaster or clean up some of the artificats, nope its just like watching a S-VHS tape)
there is a reason 8.5 gigs is available and it's not to simply add crap ass features that i could care less about except on the occasional classic like Scarface or Casino
I buy quality DVD's... im a loser i know it, but I equally build my collection through netflix.com and keep those craptastic movies 'backed' up for 30cents on a Taiyo disc's... hell if i'm going to spend part of my meager 45k a year on over-priced, poor quality pop-age movies
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