Just what are you studios up to anyway?????????????????????
newline.com
THIS JUST IN...
National Video Distributors Association (NAVD) members met with studio representatives last week to discuss recent industry developments causing "turmoil" among retailers, said NAVD executive director Bill Burton, who claims retailers "are raising issues" with their distributors related to revenue-sharing, PPV windows and DVD vs. Divx. Therefore board, meeting in Los Angeles, wanted to meet with studios to understand "what they are doing and why." Burton painted discussions as dialogue, not confrontation, saying, "We have more questions than positions." Among specific concerns was recent move byWarner Home Video and Columbia TriStar to test form of revenue-sharing with Blockbuster and other major chains. NAVD was also concerned about Divx technology and its impact on introduction of DVD, he said. "We have the same questions as everyone else in the industry." ... Independent supplier MPI Home Video will release its first DVD titles Nov. 14. Company's first foray into new format will bring three Beatles movies-A Hard Day's Night, Help! and Magical Mystery Tour-and The Best of the Bee Gees Live. Magical Mystery Tour will be priced at $19.98; other titles are $24.98. MPI follows independent suppliers Troma and Fox Lorber Associates, both of which released their first DVD titles in past several weeks. Separately, Columbia TriStar Home Video will release six DVD titles on Jan. 6: Anaconda, Donnie Brasco, Glory, Groundhog Day, The Mirror Has Two Faces and Much Ado About Nothing. All have minimum advertised price of $24.95 and are available in two packaging options. Prebook is Dec. 4 ... Software retailer Tower Records/Video, Sacramento, Calif., and regional consumer electronics chain The Good Guys!, based in San Francisco, plan to jointly open two more Wow! Multimedia Superstores in Southern California in 1998. Retailers already have two 50,000-square-foot Wow! stores, one in Las Vegas and one in Long Beach, Calif. Tower and The Good Guys! each run half of store. Tower stocks 100,000 music CDs, 25,000 VHS cassettes and laserdiscs, plus DVD and computer software. The Good Guys! provides complementary hardware, such as computers, TV sets, VCRs, and DVD and laserdisc players. Store halves are joined by cyber cafe. Third Wow! location will open in Glendale, Calif., in spring, and fourth will open later in year ... Distributor Major Video Concepts, which says it has created more than 1,000 World Wide Web sites for video retailers, has added material from Video Pipeline `s Video Detective movie database and preview service to those sites. Store customers who access retail Web sites now will be able to access multimedia previews of popular movies and videogames. Video Detective is interactive in-store kiosk that allows consumers to search database of 6,500 movies and games ... Shoppers who buy certain large-screen Panasonic TV sets between now and Dec. 31 can tune in to year's worth of free movie rentals courtesy of Blockbuster. Promotion provides Blockbuster "value card" worth one rental per week for 52 weeks to purchasers of any Panasonic projection TV. Six-month card, offering 26 consecutive weeks of rentals, goes to purchasers of Panasonic direct-view TV sets in 31- and 32-inch screen sizes. Consumers obtain card by mailing in Panasonic certificate and proof-of-purchase. Promotion emphasizes home theater appeal of large-screen TVs. |
