There is Some Hope….For the Film Studios

Just when things look bleak, technology comes to the rescue — maybe. HP, unknown to us, has a digital content unit. Their task? Provide content on demand. No not pay per view. Ala NetFlix but as a buy not a rental. So all those movies of yore that have never made it to DVD may now have a chance.

There are a number of film titles that I store in the My Movies section of IMDB that have inexplicably not been published on DVD, and I use the list to periodically check to see if they’ve finally surfaced. And it looks like I’ve got an inkling of hope of marking some titles off of my list, thanks to movie studios looking to the long tail to counter falling DVD sales. This week, Sony (which owns such studios as Columbia, Tri-Star, and Screen Gems) announced that it would license older DVD titles not currently released for production and distribution through HP’s manufactured-on-demand service. As Studio Briefing notes:

The deal will allow consumers to order movies that ordinarily would not be stocked by dealers because they are too obscure or too old. HP indicated that it expects to sign similar deals with other studios. "We're hoping this provides another option to make available products that wouldn't necessarily garner widespread retail shelf space," Jason Spivak, head of strategic development at Sony Home Entertainment, told the Times. Added Doug Warner, head of HP's digital content business, "If studios can sell more catalog than previously, they can generate more money."

For the Studios this only stems their slow slide to irrelevance. But for the consumer, this is a boon. All those old Steward Grainger and Errol Flynn flicks will now have a chance to make to a DVD. Yes, showing my age. But many of the old films are better than the ‘new stuff’ passed off as film.

Its a Good Thing.

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