OMEN
02-23-2010, 05:31 PM
Blockbuster, Video Ezy boss slams studios
Says they hinder movie download business
His company pulling out of TiVo movies
MOVIE studio greed is preventing the video-on-demand, or movie download, market from getting off the ground in Australia, according to Paul Uniacke, who heads the Video Ezy and Blockbuster video rental chains.
Mr Uniacke launched a scathing attack on studio executives last week as it emerged his company was unwinding its agreement to supply films to the movie download service delivered over an internet connection to the TiVo set-top box.
"Studio greed is what's holding back video-on-demand," he said.
"Movie studios are still as arrogant as the music moguls were before digital downloads and piracy destroyed them. The only thing that's protecting the movie studios (from more widespread illegal downloading) now is file size."
He said the minimum guarantees studios demanded from video-on-demand partners in terms of up-front revenue payments that must be made whether the estimated number of downloads are reached or not, as well as revenue-share arrangements skewed heavily in favour of the studios, made video-on-demand a cost-prohibitive industry.
Industry sources said studios negotiated different revenue-share arrangements depending on the clout of their partner, but payments could be as high as 70 per cent of a digital movie rental fee to the studio.
Robbee Minicola, head of Hybrid TV, which licenses the TiVo set-top box in this region, said the Blockbuster movie download service would end on March 5 by amicable arrangement, with TiVo customers to be migrated to Hybrid's new CASPA portal for movie and TV show downloads.
The Australian
Says they hinder movie download business
His company pulling out of TiVo movies
MOVIE studio greed is preventing the video-on-demand, or movie download, market from getting off the ground in Australia, according to Paul Uniacke, who heads the Video Ezy and Blockbuster video rental chains.
Mr Uniacke launched a scathing attack on studio executives last week as it emerged his company was unwinding its agreement to supply films to the movie download service delivered over an internet connection to the TiVo set-top box.
"Studio greed is what's holding back video-on-demand," he said.
"Movie studios are still as arrogant as the music moguls were before digital downloads and piracy destroyed them. The only thing that's protecting the movie studios (from more widespread illegal downloading) now is file size."
He said the minimum guarantees studios demanded from video-on-demand partners in terms of up-front revenue payments that must be made whether the estimated number of downloads are reached or not, as well as revenue-share arrangements skewed heavily in favour of the studios, made video-on-demand a cost-prohibitive industry.
Industry sources said studios negotiated different revenue-share arrangements depending on the clout of their partner, but payments could be as high as 70 per cent of a digital movie rental fee to the studio.
Robbee Minicola, head of Hybrid TV, which licenses the TiVo set-top box in this region, said the Blockbuster movie download service would end on March 5 by amicable arrangement, with TiVo customers to be migrated to Hybrid's new CASPA portal for movie and TV show downloads.
The Australian