Channelblog

Choices Choices Choices...

Just when you'd think it couldn't get any worse, the UK's second largest Rental/Retail chain Choices goes into administration! 1800 staff being made redundant.
As it's ex-chairman, Ian Muspratt, was largely to blame for caving in to the major Studios in regard to an industry initiative to resist two tier pricing... we're not altogether disappointed. But it's not good news for the industry overall. But hang on a minute - weren't Choices supplying Lovefilm with their Rental stock? Oh dear!
So HMV's taken Fopps 6 best stores - the ones that make money... can't blame them.
And Blockbuster continues to close stores. Their Camden branch has just closed, although apparently because of a hike in the rent.
Anyway, if you live around Camden you can always get some proper films from what is now the only Film Rental outlet for miles... our Camden branch. Where incidentally, filming recently took place for an episode of Primeval... two young things fall in love while discussing movies in a Video store. How sweet!
What else is happening? Market traders now look like they'll be directly responsible for stall holders selling pirate DVDs after a recent ruling. Why has this taken so long, surely it's just common sense. Maybe trading standards can now start pulling their finger out instead of 'fitting up' innocent dealers via entrapment excercises for under-age ex-rental sales.
Huge recent box office business, which is good news for Rental as films channel through. Apparently European Cinema screens are set to multiply over the coming years as 3,000 new screens are forecast to open by 2011.
We'll try to have an Internet update soon as lots happening.... the great Broadband battle is scheduled to start soon... are you being capped? Is your ISP throttling you? Are bundles about to start unbundling? Apparently 1M more homes have signed up for connections in the last year!
Imagine if we lived in France.... they've already got fibre optic! We've a long way to go here and no one yet even has a plan to replace our crumbling telecoms infrastructure! Perhaps it'll all become irrelevant as a whole new technology will come along to allay our fears about Wi-Fi. Maybe it's all in the mind!
We're looking for an ASP (Classic) developer at the moment, if there's anyone out there... 

Jaycee                    

Fopp Flopped

The home entertainment industry's fortunes don't seem to be getting any brighter as the recent closure of retailer FOPP demonstrates. It seems their ideal demographic... the customer who came in every couple of weeks and spent around £50 on DVDs & CDs just weren't there in the required quantity.
Profit warnings from HMV, reduced designated shelf space for home entertainment products from all the major multiples like Tesco & Sainsbury's (who have freely admitted they don't make money on DVD or CD, just stock them as loss leaders) comes as no surprise to us.
So who's the real casualty besides retail.... film makers, because since the demise of Rental there's not going to be an outlet for their work! Rental at least gave a window for indie films, however bad, which every now and again translated to retail via word-of-mouth.
This can explain to some degree the sudden rush for indie distributors to get their films out on the net, perhaps seeing it as their savior.
But even more worrying perhaps are recent reports from the US and Europe that there's a whole generation of 16-24 year olds who just aren't interested in film like they used to be. Prefering to spend their time on social networking sites like Facebook, Bebo, youtube & myspace, where they can at least get their egos massaged and collect even more 'friends', however REAL they are. Interesting times and perhaps more of a catalyst to merge the PC and TV than we realize!
The law-suits have started on Second Life... anyone tried the SEX-BED yet?   

Cannes

Yes one of us was lucky to have been sweating on the croissette recently, Ferrari traffic jams and tacky red carpet. The wanna-be, will-be, and already-is be, of the film industry gathering for what is a working party time.
Having run into many colleagues, we shall endeavour to extract a more detailed analysis of the goings-on at the 60th Anniversary of Cannes Film Festival, soon!
Again Next Year? ... definitely maybe!          

THE STATE OF PLAY...

PS3 out at last...  allegedly all units pre-sold out of initial UK allocation. Although, lets see what turns up and for how much on Ebay over the coming weeks and months! What can it really do anyway; does it have a browser installed or not, and if so, is it over a private network like itunes and the like... Sony are belatedly going in that direction it seems, along with other corporates, jealous of Apple's success. 
The HD capability is of course significant and huge ammunition for the Blu-Ray camp.
Of course the Studios would love you all to be replacing entire library's of DVDs, thus giving them another renewed revenue stream; the general consensus being it won't happen like the rip-roaring success of DVD.
Which leads me on to mention the general flux in the industry at the moment. Too early for Digital, too late for HD? That seems to be a mood amongst many on both sides of the fence at the moment; with a slowing market and ever aggressive pricing. Packaged media, especially DVD, has been devalued to the point of no return. Will Blu-Ray save the day? And will HD suddenly rear it's head when more players, both dual and PC based, come onto the market.
From a Rental perspective there's much talk about a window returning, albeit only 4 weeks but a strategically interesting proposition for the market. For those that don't know... Video Rental lost it's window (exclusive period) a few years ago now, after a certain Warren L... (Warner Bros. Exec credited with largely creating the DVD market) embarked on a 'get-rid of Rental' mission, by manipulating a European Directive (European Rental Directive) to impose new restrictions and reverse pricing on UK Rental dealers. Other studios followed and we've seen a decline ever since, fuelled by baked-bean salesmen chasing short-term profit to the detriment of market longevity.
And now it appears some have realised the error in their ways by re-introducing a Rental window - first in Australia and soon coming to a store near you? Lets all confuse the buying public again shall we? We of course want our window back... less competition from Rental-By-Post, a returning market and a re-vitalized industry. Perhaps they're starting to remember that filmed media is an art-form afterall, not a pallet of baked beans.

Jaycee