Movie Industry Sees More Window Pains

I don't know if you've noticed, but the release window -- that gap between a movie's theatrical release and its release in other media -- has been shrinking for some time. It was just two years ago that the average DVD release window was six months; in the last year, it's been shrinking further, to about four.

The entertainment industry's also been in a tizzy ever since Traffic director Steven Soderbergh and 2929 Entertainment first started making noises about the concept of simultaneous theatrical, DVD, video on demand (VOD) and TV releases last year. (One of the more vocal opponents was Sixth Sense director M. Night Shyamalan, leading me to anticipate some old-fashioned lucha libre between them to settle the issue. Oh, if only.)

Yesterday's Hollywood Reporter reports that the latest concept being floated comes from News Corp. prez and COO Peter Chernin. (News Corp. is Fox's parent company.) Apaprently they've been talking about the idea of a 60-day high-def VOD release window, with a premium price tag of $25. He makes a good point, stating that when you factor in the costs in taking a family out to see a movie, it'll probably work out cheaper to sit around the ol' HDTV instead of going to the cinema. But he also says that over a million American consumers bought home cinema systems last year (he calls them "desperate consumers" for this kind of HD offering), which leads me to ask one of many questions: between unfinished and unreliable copy-protection schemes, how do these early-adopting consumers know they'll even be able to watch anything?