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Two legendary movie producers, Samuel Goldwyn and Jack Warner, are both credited with telling some studio underling, “If you want to send a message, call Western Union.”
It now appears that the men (and yes, it’s still mostly men) who now sit in the corner offices at the studios that Goldwyn and Warner built are sending a clear message to consumers: we’re willing to roll with the digital tide.

Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes told those listening on his company’s earnings conference call that Warner Brothers will release movies to video on demand (VOD) on the same day they become available on DVD. And the Hollywood Reporter tells us Apple now has a deal with nearly all the major movie studios to sell new releases on iTunes at the same time they hit brick-and-mortar retailer’s shelves.

Corporations as big as Warners, Sony, Disney, et al don’t suddenly “get” this digital revolution thing; most of them have been experimenting with day-and-date releases in some form or fashion. They’ve been studying sales figures to determine just how much a digital movie release eats away at real-world sales. The answer, at least for Warners Brothers, appears to be only 3-5 percent; not enough, it seems, to continue the 1-2 month window that has traditionally existed between DVD release and a movie’s appearance on your Comcast, Time Warner or Apple TV digital service.

One big question remains: how long do I have to watch these movies? Video rental stories give you a few days; Comcast and Apple TV gives you 24 hours, as dictated by the studios.

Most of the attention from these announcements will focus on bottom-line factors; the New York Times Bits blog talks about the potential impact on Blockbuster, which is trying to link up with Circuit City as a way to deal with all these digital alternatives to what used to be a business it owned. Meanwhile, the ball is now in Amazon Unbox and Xbox Live Marketplace’s court to strike deals similar to Apple’s.
I’d rather think about the direct impact on the consumer, as filtered through a conversation my wife and I had earlier this week. As parents of a four-year-old and a two-year-old, we’ve already said goodbye to Date Night at the local cineplex and hello to VOD, Hollywood Video and Dora the Explorer. Like many other Americans, we’ve invested in a tricked-out entertainment center that should provide us with all the laughs, thrills and chills we’ll need during tough economic times.

So when my wife heard that the chick-flick “23 Dresses” was coming out this week on DVD, she wondered if it would also be available on Comcast. Sorry, I told her, you’ll still have to wait a month or two before you can watch it on the flat-screen in the living room (while I find a ballgame on the TV in our bedroom; any of this sound painfully familiar, guys?)

Now, that release window is closing, for reasons of convenience, economics and technology. The movie studios may have heard another message, this one from critics of the music industry: when it comes to digital technologies, embrace the future, don’t fight it.

Read [Bits] Read [Hollywood Reporter]

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