DVDINSIDER: Americana Publishing, Inc. CD Audio Book Rental Program To Set Groundwork for Its DVD Rental Program.
DVD NEWS-(C)1999-2003 DVD NEWS. Distributed for AM Newswire Inc via M2 Communications Ltd (www.m2.com).
Americana Publishing is laying the groundwork for launching a CD audio book rental program in the first quarter of 2004.
These rentals will be offered to the Company's existing truck stop customers as well as marketed directly to more than 2,000 trucking companies, which the Company believes represent approximately one-half million truck drivers.
"The Company is now awaiting the arrival of CD duplication equipment," said George Lovato, Jr., chairman and chief executive officer of Americana Publishing. "This will allow us to build inventory quickly and cost-effectively."
Once this equipment arrives, within the coming weeks, the Company will begin building a basic inventory of its most popular titles. The CD duplication equipment will allow Americana to respond quickly with additional copies of the most requested popular titles. This will allow dynamic growth and flexibility of the inventory, at a low duplication cost.
"The beauty of our CD audio book rental program is it allows a listener, if he or she begins in the middle of a series, to go back and start at the beginning," said Lovato.
Americana's CD audio book rental program has modified its rental pricing structure so truckers can rent three titles for $21.95, six titles for $35.95 and nine titles for $49.95 to accommodate a pending exclusive shipping program.
Once this program is underway, it will segue into a DVD rental program.
According to the Video Software Dealers Association, video consumers in the United States doubled their DVD rental spending to an unprecedented $2.9 billion in 2002.
"Our DVD rental program, designed for long-haul truckers, will be similar to programs like NetFlix in that we will be offering volume discounts," said Lovato. "But rather than a monthly fee, we will provide multiple titles at a significant discount and flexibility of return from anywhere in the United States."
Both the CD audio book rental program and DVD rental program will include prepaid return address packaging so truckers can easily return the rentals from anywhere in the U.S. This delivery and return system will be similar to those established by pre-existing DVD rental companies.
DVDs will have a pricing structure similar to the CD audio book rental pricing structure.
According to the Audio Publishers Association, annual sales of audio books total nearly $2 billion, with approximately 42 million Americans listening to audio books.