|
|
Posted by Bill Vermillion on 05/05/07 17:15
In article <wetraprock-B9F33C.13100804052007@comcast.dca.giganews.com>,
Walter Traprock <wetraprock@hotmail.com> wrote:
>Fake Name <fakename@fake.com> wrote:
>
>> <snip>
>> >To control the market and prices, but I think they will go to realize
>> >soon that is time to forget it.
>> <snip>
>>
>> I think the main reason is to control the release of the product and
>> milk it at every stage for the maximum return. For example, a film
>> might be released to the theatres in the US and then it will move to
>> the second run theatres and airlines at the same time. Then it will
>> make it to pay per view and on from there to premium channels. Then
>> it will be released to DVD but maybe not at the sell through price
>> until the rental places have had their run. Meanwhile, in other
>> regions the title may never have been released to the theatres. It
>> may have been a straight to DVD release and will hit their market at
>> the same time it is on pay per view in the US. To protect the other
>> relationships, the DVD's "can't" work in the US while the other tiers
>> of distribution are in play. In Japan, TV shows make it to Japanese
>> DVD about a month after the season is over. Some of the shows are
>> exported to other nations and broadcast on TV. Again, to protect the
>> license those other TV markets have purchased, the DVD's are initially
>> released in a Japanese region only, for a time.
>That doesn't explain why DVD releases of movies like the Lost Weekend
>(1945) or the main Laurel and Hardy releases are region controlled.
>I think the most likely explanation is the desire by companies to
>"de-value" a product as much as they can get away with; you see, the
>Harvardite MBA assholes who run the companies are taught in Harvard that
>the worst thing in the world is to release a product to the hated public
>with "excess value", and consciously degrade the product for it's
>release to consumers, thus, DRM, region coding, unskippable ads and
>warnings, "glitches", reductions in sound quality, etc.
The making of region-codes came about when the CD manufacturers
noticed that a very large number of CD's were being imported from
other countries. Sometimes one company would be licsenced for
the US while another for other parts of the world. The imported
CDs cut into the profit$ of the domestic producer.
Films are also licensed in other countried to different
distributors so the 'region code' was introduced to try to keep
people from importing DVDs from other parts of the world.
These discussions all took place before the first DVDs were shipped
so much of this seems to be forgotten.
Bill
--
Bill Vermillion - bv @ wjv . com
Navigation:
[Reply to this message]
|