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Media
Information > Media DVD Coverage 
Archive
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DVD NEWS DIGEST
1.
Spy Kids 3: Game Over Walt Disney Home Entertainment
A growing number of people are using online DVD services, attracted by the convenience and absence of late fees. They're also a bargain for movie buffs, who otherwise have to spend upward of $5 a movie at a video store. One service costs $19.95 a month for unlimited rentals with no due dates or late fees. Customers are limited to three DVDs at a time but have the option of getting more for an added fee. A popular service, Netflix, works like this: Once customers sign up, they can browse movie titles and compile a "rental queue." Netflix mails out the first three available titles with prepaid return envelopes. As a subscriber watches each DVD and mails it back, another title from the queue replaces it. Distribution centers spread across the country process the requests from their region to ensure speedy delivery. Netflix says that nearly 80 percent of its customers receive their DVDs within one or two days of placing an order.
NASCAR Images (the auto racing group's production division) plans to issue out five DVDs a year, including a recap of the past year's races. With a fan base that NASCAR estimates as high as 45 million hardcore fans and 75 million total fans, sales are expected to come in around 100,000 units for each of the specialty releases. The NASCAR titles will either center on drivers or feature highlights from NASCAR races past. The DVDs include interviews, behind-the-scenes operations, a look at the pit crews and other new content.
The Consumer Electronics Association, a Washington trade group that represents about 1,200 companies, projects the sale of in-car DVD players this year will reach $39 million, a total that is expected to more than quadruple by 2007. Tara Dunion, director of the association, said more than 35 percent of homes have added a DVD player since the product was introduced in 1996, making it "the fastest growing consumer electronics product of all time." She said car DVDs were the natural next step. For families taking long trips with their kids, videos can seem lifestyle-altering. They are also blessings for chauffeuring moms who spend lots of time taking their children to various events.l "My daughter is on a traveling soccer team, and we're on the road a lot," a mother said. "The kids love going with me. They can watch a movie.
This compares with 1.7bn euros (£1.1bn) in France, and 963m euros (£645m) in Germany. There are currently more than 50 million DVD players in western Europe - equivalent to one in every three homes.
Add high-speed wireless networking to distribute content, and you have a product set that many vendors believe will appeal to people likely to avoid seemingly complex media center PCs, media servers, and similar products. Another approach that's gaining momentum is the all-in-one-server model, which similarly places a DVD player/recorder at the center of the action, but which doesn't rely heavily on a PC. Such models will be on the market early next year. March
7 - Sunday Times [UK]: Online DVD Rental A similar service has been a runaway success in the US, with over 2 million customers. end
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