Back in March, there was news of a new plan featuring major studios to stream “premium” movies via DirecTV a mere 60 days after their premiere in theaters. With the backing of Warner Bros., Sony, Universal, and 20th Century Fox, studios hoped to head off the rise of streaming and declining DVD sales without upsetting theater owners too much. The only catch was that these so-called Home Premiere movies would cost viewers about $30 per movie. Now, DirecTV CEO Michael White is saying that those prices are “awfully high.”
From Bloomberg:
Few customers will purchase the premium rentals unless the quality of the movies improves and the price comes down, White said in an interview.
“They’re priced too high for consumers,” White said. “We didn’t choose that price, but that’s where the studios forced us to be.”
This could be good news for Netflix, which has been on the ropes in terms of retaining its content, and other streaming services looking to make gains in this new marketplace. Hopefully this will be the death knell of this completely wigged out scheme, and we can stop worrying about paying double a movie ticket to stream a flick.
