Yesterday, one of Hollands largest film distributors announced that they intend to start selling movies online in December of this year. The decision of Pathé to enter the Video-On-Demand-market (VOD) is more or less a logic step in an ongoing development.

In the current culture of downloading, the traditional distributor-models for releasing music and movies are heavily under stress. You'll probably remember the tumult about de DVD-release of 'Alice in Wonderland' earlier this year. Even before the movie was playing in the cinemas, Disney gave notice that de DVD of the movie would be released within three months after the cinema release. Which was way to soon according to cinemas worldwide. 

Movie theatres feared that they would lose clientele because of the quick release of the DVD. People would rather buy the DVD and watch it at home, than buy a ticket for watching the movie in cinemas. The longer the 'window' between the release in cinemas and the DVD-release, the higher the income for cinemas. To prevent loss of income, cinemas worldwide threatened to boycott the release of the 'Alice in Wonderland' DVD.

The underlying problem here is that film distributors would like to meet the demands of the modern consumer by offering the latest movies as high quality downloads swiftly after the release in cinemas. But, this will automatically interfere with DVD purchases, a source of income of the distributors and the sale of theatre tickets. Cinemas benefit from a long stretch between the release of a movie in cinemas and the DVD-release. 

An interesting solution is that cinemas themselves respond to changing wishes of the modern consumer by offering them high quality movies on demand. After internet providers, digital television providers and movie renters took the step and started selling movies and television series online, now traditional cinemas are starting to offer VOD services too.

Pathé Cinemas intends to offer movies through a new VOD service called “Pathé at Home” about four months after the cinema release. Users can watch a movie once for five Euros, but they will also have the option to buy the movie directly. The cinema chain wants to generate up to three million downloads within two to three years.

Moreover, cinemas in  The Netherlands don't have much to complain about: throughout Europe, cinemas achieved an absolute record year in terms of visitors and profit last year. 

For more developments in the cinema business, read more on FutureOfCopyright.com: 

• Imax movie theatres are ready for the digital future
• Record sales for Dutch cinemas
• Studios experiment with earlier DVD release, cinemas enraged

Bron: Nu.nl