With that being specifically a UK executive I wouldn’t be surprised if he was referring to the way that cinema windows used to be staggered, so they were scared of interrupting that.

What used to happen is that physical prints are expensive to produce and distribute, so studios produced a smaller number than were required for each territory or language, then they’d distribute as needed. So, for example, it used to be that the UK release was set a few months after the US release, and they’d ship over the prints that were no longer used. Then, sometimes, a movie would open in London first, then roll out to the rest of the country. In the 80s I remember it wasn’t unusual to see some print damage on opening night.

A lot of this has already been changed by the shift to digital projection in the intervening years, but I suspect that at the time they were still dealing with physical prints enough that they imagined closer home media releases interfering with the savings they made by printing less than needed for a global release.

So, this is likely a combination of things – tech having improved to do a great deal of what the industry requires, then a major event that pushes them to actually use it. He was wrong 15 years ago as well (the problem was business fears and economies of scale, not tech), but it has taken slightly more than just COVID to get things to where they are today.