Following the lead of Mike South's South River Video, and other mainstream studios earlier this year, Time Warner Inc. says it plans to offer download-to-burn movies over the Internet beginning next year. Vivid Entertainment Group more recently also added the service.
Company Chief Executive and Chairman, Richard Parsons, told the annual Reuters Media Summit Monday in New York that the company is moving forward with plans to allow Internet users to download and burn its movies onto DVD disks by consumers.
The new service would also be available at Wal-Mart stores on the same day its DVDs go on sale.
In July, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Universal Pictures, Walt Disney Co.’s Buena Vista Home Entertainment and Metro Goldwyn Mayer signed a deal with CinemaNow Inc., which operates www.cinemanow.com which will offer more than 100 movies that can be copied onto a DVD disc for about $9 a movie.
The deal was a precursor to another deal worked out between the studios and Apple Computer Inc. which also provides Hollywood movies for downloading through its iTunes online shop.
These agreements mark a significant shift in the way Hollywood studios distribute its movies by giving consumers a chance to make their own DVD versions of popular mainstream titles. The action comes as the studios continue to post losses due to illegal copying of their movies.
Vivid had begun offering a download-to-burn service in May for its titles, marking the first time a studio – mainstream or adult – that offered such a service.
