Now Redbox Is Suing Fox Over Kiosk DVDs; UPDATE With Fox Statement Hitting Back

COMMENTS (6)

• I predict this will go over as well for FOX as NBC-Universal pulling its content from iTunes a few years back went for NBCU.

  There were pissed off NBC TV Show Season Pass holders to contend with (Apple gave them refunds plus bonus iTunes credit which they spent on other companies TV shows), they had a nightmare of a time with Amazon Unboxed (for the few people who figured out that NBC content had migrated there, they found that initially Unboxed’s video format was incompatible with Apple devices like the iPod) and then eventually NBCU quietly returned the content to iTunes because frankly GE can’t afford to turn down a single revenue stream (they’ve spent a lot on ‘iTunes killer’ Hulu and oh yeah something like $200 million fighting off an SEC investigation for accounting fraud which they lost & now have to cough up $50 million more in fines)

  By the way did you see the Time magazine piece yesterday (Will Rupert Murdoch Be the Pied Piper of Paid Content?) in which the author mentions the following:

  “Internet experts say that almost everybody who has ever tried charging for content has failed. Murdoch is out of touch, they suggest. Michael Wolff, whose book on Murdoch, The Man Who Owns the News, came out in December, says he was shocked to learn that [Rupert] Murdoch didn’t have an e-mail address, could barely use his cell phone and had not been on the Internet unaided. “Technology,” writes Wolff, “has always been regarded as one of those things, like fancy hotels, or long-form writing, that are not part of [News Corp.'s] culture.” ”

  Oh yeah this will end well for FOX…NOT!

  In the meantime if it’s in my local library on DVD, Fox, I might watch it. There’s plenty of other ways to see FOX stuff, but that’s the cheapest & most convenient for me & thankfully unless the congloms jury-rig copyright law further in their favor it’s still legal under the 1st sale doctrine.

  Comment by VDOVault — Wednesday August 12, 2009 @ 9:14am PDT  Reply to this post

• Why should Redbox be treated any differently than Netflix or Blockbuster (or what’s left of Hollywood Video?)

  Redbox shouldn’t have made deals with Sony or Liongate – now everyone will want deals, or restrict product.

  I think the studios are more affraid of a glut of used disc!

  Comment by DenW — Wednesday August 12, 2009 @ 4:42pm PDT  Reply to this post

• I’ve blogged on this a lot. VDOVault you are spot on regarding the futility of Murdoch’s “pay” model — it works for the WSJ because it’s an alternative to Bloomberg terminals, but that’s the investor market who will pay premium for information about markets.

  Redbox is a great model — cheap, convenient, at the grocery store, Friday night shopping and a movie. It ought to be embraced, not fought. Agreed VDOVault that NBCU’s move with Itunes was all kinds of stupid.

  I think eventually all content will be “free” but with product placement ads “plus” (i.e. the product is a critical component of the storyline, and positive) for consumers to view on Ipods/phones, computers, and DVDs (nominal burning charge). That will change Hollywood from niche to mass, few films like Milk, many like Ice Age 3. Paradoxically, the internet makes mass more not less possible.

  Comment by whiskey — Wednesday August 12, 2009 @ 9:30pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Oh the humanity! A service that allows the consumer to rent a DVD for 1$ instead of 5! We must punish these companies which serve to offer cheap entertainment in a down economy and unite until we can finally offer the Holy Grail: The 10 dollar rental!

  Comment by Script Shadow — Wednesday August 12, 2009 @ 9:58pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Soon you will kill the goose that laid the golden egg. With studios, if there is no profit in it, like wall mart they stop carrying it, or they cut back. So have your $1 DVD’s now, but with no one buying them at Wal Mart guess what, less and less will be released, the studios will find another way to make money. One that won’t cost a buck.

  So by all means gorge yourself on the $1 Redbox now, because in the future they might be Coinstar stations instead. A vending machine is just a vending machine, it can spew out anything.

  Comment by lsb — Thursday August 13, 2009 @ 9:12am PDT  Reply to this post

• Redbox is a great choice for those who want to watch the movie that night and are good at remembering to bring it back the next day. These companies just continue to make the same mistakes over and over again. The music industry will never recover from the damage done by not managing file-sharing better when it was first exploding at the beginning of the decade and

  Comment by TJ — Thursday August 13, 2009 @ 1:15pm PDT  Reply to this post