European Trade Wants Shorter Video Windows

As import DVDs flood the marketplace and satellite television broadcasters continue to disregard Europe's theatrical windows, a growing number of home video executives are pushing to shorten the time between movie and video releases.

"If a movie's in a theater for a week, why wait six months to release it on video while you still have to spend a lot of money promoting it in the theaters?" asked DreamWorks Home Entertainment VP of international Matt Brown.

Brown is just one of many executives calling for greater flexibility in video release patterns.

"Protecting the status quo because of fear of the future restricts growth," said Warner Home Video Europe president Ron Sanders at a meeting of the French government body Centre National de la Cinématographie (CNC).

At the confab, he said the European market windows aren't realistic for consumers, who quickly lose interest in most films after three months in theaters.

In some markets, movies aren't released on video until nine months after their theatrical release date. The CNC announced that the window would be shortened to six months in an attempt to curb the flood of imports of French-language DVDs from Quebec and French-speaking countries. In addition, Region 1 DVDs from North America are now openly sold by French retailers such as FNAC.

But Sanders says one country shortening the window isn't enough.

"A lot of sell-through videos' lackluster performance in Europe is because of cut-rate pricing," said Sanders. "But it is also due to a fundamental malaise that is related to the titles not being new. We as an industry depend on our movies as a fashion item to drive consumer [traffic] in the stores."

In many European countries, video retailers enjoy a six-month pay-per-view television window, which Sanders says is also too long. "Video rental retailers strictly adhere to the six-month pay-per-view window when 85% of rental revenues are generated in the first 12 weeks," he said.

But U.K. retailers are voicing their growing frustration over pay-per-view and near video-on-demand broadcasters is started every 15 minutes) breaking release restrictions while the theatrical business remains unconcerned. (Near video-on-demand is a rotation where a movie starts every 15 minutes.)

"The theatrical reluctance to shorten them has always been a mystery to me," says Stephen Jefferies, managing director of U.K. independent rental chain VidBiz. "Shorter and more flexible windows are a mutually beneficial move to all sides of the industry."

Jefferies points out that a number of satellite pay-per-view channels have breached the release window and that satellite giant BSkyB even released "Saving Grace" ahead of its video release.

"No major U.K. rental chain is likely to buy the film now, in protest," Jefferies says. "It is not possible that this was the most commercially viable route for this movie. Lord only knows why they did it."

Co Mast, managing director of Benelux rental and sell-through chain Video-Vision, says the theatrical-to-rental windows should be cut to three months and pay-per-view windows should be cut from one year to six months.

Warner's Sanders opposes moves to eliminate day-and-date VHS rental and DVD release patterns, which were pioneered by the studio.

Both 20th Century Fox Home Video and Buena Vista Home Video have bowed DVD rental windows in Europe recently. The windows have been welcomed by rental dealers but criticized by sell-through retailers.

Sanders opposes the Fox and Buena Vista DVD rental window, saying that anything that encourages consumers to look for earlier releases of movies either by parallel imports or other methods of delivery is foolhardy.

But VidBiz's Jefferies argues for the window, saying, "Simultaneous sell-through releases steal rental business."

Sanders countered that the DVD business is incremental and that DVD buyers were purchasing 11 to 15 discs a year because of the early release date. VHS buyers, he points out, purchase about half the amount of product. "You take away that advantage," he said, "and you take away the potential for growth."