The national sales manager for Vivid Entertainment Group, Howard Levine, on Tuesday addressed his clients' concerns about Vivid’s newly launched Burn to DVD service.
The service enables viewers to download the studio’s movies directly and burn a personal DVD copy on a home computer. The burned video discs will play in any standard DVD player, allowing viewers to watch features on TV in the same manner as if they purchased them at retail stores. Additionally, the downloaded DVD file will play on the computer in which it was originally downloaded.
Since the announcement of the launch, Levine said he has received several calls from distributors and retailers that expressed concern that the service would adversely affect their bottom lines.
“I want to clear up some misconceptions about the download to burn,” Levine told AVN.com. “First of all, if you think about it, this is just another way of doing mail order without the postage. As we all know, there’s been mail order for many, many years, and it did not close the brick-and-mortar stores.
“No. 2, Vivid is offering 30 old catalog titles that the distributors buy at a greatly reduced price. Retailers can buy these titles from any of their distributors and offer them in any of their stores from anywhere between $10.95 and $14.95, easily. These are offered for $19.95 on the service.”
Levine continued, “The service is also a six-hour download, and I truly believe the guy that goes into the brick-and-mortar stores is not the guy that buys the downloadable DVD. These are mostly computer guys that are doing this. If everybody is so upset about this, wouldn’t they be more upset if there was a service that offered a new release, day-and-date, for $8.99? That service is [video-on-demand], and everybody is doing VOD. That would be everybody but one company, Vivid Video. Vivid does not do day-and-date. Nor does Vivid do day-and-date on the download to burn.
“It’s like saying I’m mad at the guy who invented the wheel. I understand people are mad, but Vivid is not in the business of hurting a retailer or hurting a distributor. It never has been and never will be.”
The Vivid sales chief said the Burn to DVD service is simply another way of getting an older product. He reiterated that at this stage Vivid is not offering new release product through the service.
“Most of my distributors have not bought these titles in years,” Levine added. “The artwork is not the same. It is not even close to the original packaging.”
Levine said he believes that people still want “the shopping experience.”
“People still want to walk into the store and look around and pick something up and be able to take it home with them. Handle it, feel it, look at it, and decide upon it and take it home with them,” he said. “That’s not going to stop any time soon. I just think that if everybody is so upset, what they should really be upset about more so than anything else is VOD. And VOD did not stop the brick-and-mortar stores either.”
Levine said that anyone who still has concerns can call him directly at 866.466.6969, ext. 3100.
“I’m not trying to stop the people that would go to the download to burn, but I’m in the DVD business. Vivid is still in the DVD business, and you’re not going to stop technology.”
