5/7/2023 0 Comments Flixster collectionsMost of the company’s muscle comes from a free what’s-in-theaters-now app that works on Apple, Android and BlackBerry devices. The question that remains, of course, is whether Warner had a choice - did the studio step in because it’s a forward thinker? Or was no retailer willing to stick its neck out for the UltraViolet locker?į had only about 1.2 million unique visitors in September, according to comScore. “It’s a huge opportunity from a marketing perspective,” Mr. If Warner sees that a user has bought five of its eight Harry Potter films, the studio can try to sell the other three. Flixster Collections allows the studio to see users’ movie purchases, for instance. ![]() Still, building a direct relationship with consumers was one of the primary reasons Warner bought the site. He added, “We didn’t buy Flixster as a retail outlet.” Tsujihara said, indicating that Warner intends to tread carefully. The plan “hasn’t caused any problems,” Mr. What does it know about retail? Won’t retail partners - especially Wal-Mart - see the move as turf infringement? That positions Flixster as a competitor to Apple’s iTunes and Wal-Mart’s Vudu, a strategy that some other studios see as foolhardy. The idea is to train consumers to manage their movie libraries online, much the way they do digital music or photos.įlixster already offers a service called Collections that allows users to tie together their iTunes, Hulu and Netflix accounts to show any films that they have rented or bought online.įlixster will also transform itself into a film retailer, allowing users to buy digital movies through what it calls a “studio agnostic” storefront. In the coming months, Flixster will start offering a service called Disc to Digital that will allow people to pay a small fee per disc to convert their existing DVD collections into digital copies. Warner has bigger ambitions for Flixster. Sales of DVDs in the United States last year totaled $7.8 billion, a 43 percent decline from the industry’s 2006 peak of $13.7 billion, according to the media-tracking firm IHS Screen Digest. And the down economy has also taken a toll. Purchases provide margins for the studios that are typically three times greater than rentals - and the rise of Netflix, Redbox and video-on-demand rental services have severely cut into purchases. Warner and other studios are racing ahead for a variety of reasons. “It remains far, far easier for DVD-buying consumers to pirate a digital copy of their movie,” said Richard Greenfield, an analyst for BTIG Capital, adding that, “moving forward with UltraViolet before it is ready for prime time risks pushing consumers increasingly toward rental-priced options where they do not need to deal with the hassles.” And large swaths of the UltraViolet system are still incomplete. There will be only 10 or so titles for UltraViolet by Christmas. Rank-and-file consumers are still hazy about what cloud storage even means. Some analysts say Warner is moving too quickly. “We don’t have the luxury of waiting a year until we have everything perfect.” “We recognize that the product is not perfect today,” Mr. That may seem complicated for consumers in the age of Netflix and iTunes. ![]() ![]() Once consumers buy an UltraViolet-enabled DVD or Blu-ray set - say, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2,” which arrived in stores on Friday - they can set up an account on Flixster and type in a code provided on the disc packaging to claim their digital rights. Retailers like Wal-Mart are working on UltraViolet access sites, but the only way to use the cloud-based service for now is via Flixster. “We must move consumers in mass numbers toward collecting movies digitally, and this is a path,” said Kevin Tsujihara, president of Warner Home Entertainment. The strategy is to make owning more compelling than renting by loading digital portability into purchases. The free service, backed by most of the big studios, allows people to buy a movie once and watch it anywhere - on a computer, mobile device or Web-ready television. Warner last month introduced technology that makes Flixster the home base for a new movie storage service called UltraViolet. The studio, which is owned by Time Warner and commands a 20 percent share of the DVD and Blu-ray market, has decided to center its buy-not-rent hopes on Flixster, a small social network for movie buffs that it bought in May for about $75 million. Desperate to raise home entertainment profits, studios want people to start buying movies outright again, either digitally or on little silver discs.īut what’s the best way to force that pendulum to swing?Įvery studio is grappling with that question, but one of the more aggressive and risky bets is being made by Warner Brothers. LOS ANGELES - Hollywood has had enough of the sharp consumer shift toward renting movies through Netflix.
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