Hollywood Sees The Big Picture With DVDs

from the amazing dept

Now this story amazes me. The Washington Post has a huge article about how DVDs have rejuvenated the movie industry, and how DVD sales are now a huge part of any movie release. They talk about how it’s changed the very market for movies, and quote studio execs talking about the importance of the DVD to their business. At the same time, however, the movie industry still relies on Jack Valenti to lobby for them to Congress. Jack Valenti who said the VCR was the equivalent of the Boston strangler to the movie industry. If Jack Valenti had his way, the movie industry never would have had the chance to offer DVDs because they would (obviously) kill off the movie industry. Here’s a perfect example of a technology redefining and broadening a market, and at the same time Jack Valenti is still talking about how the internet is going to kill the movie industry. It’s amazing that they can “embrace” this one technology while not seeing that the other technology offers opportunities as well.


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Comments on “Hollywood Sees The Big Picture With DVDs”

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4 Comments
david says:

DVD killed the video star

Um….. DVD’s carry copy protection. That is why hollywood enjoys the technology – the video content remains protected while the consumer gets a high quality product. I don’t think hollywood has expressed a fear of technology, but rather a fear of having little control over where/how their products are distributed… a fear many in the technology world share.

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