Could film studios soon offer $30 “Premium VOD” for new films?

Is a new Premium VOD service for the latest films soon to become a reality?

The times they are a-changing in the realms of cinema as more and more people are beginning to change the way they experience and watch films. Piracy is still a huge concern for Hollywood studios and with the rise continuing, as well as the sharp downturn in DVD sales, they are looking at ways to counter these by offering a new service to people wanting to watch the latest releases at home.

Variety is reporting that six of the seven biggest studios in Hollywood are looking to continue their push to offer a premium service for those who want to watch new films at home only a few weeks after their theatrical debuts. There have been talks ongoing for a while about such a service, with Warner Bros. CEO Kevin Tsujihara saying that he would give exhibitors a cut of the revenues generated from such a scheme if films could debut just 17 days after their cinema release for $50.

Fox and Universal have said that the $50 price was too steep and that they are trying to get the exhibitors to agree on a later date (perhaps 30 to 45 days) that would such a deal down to $30 a film. Disney, meanwhile, is thought to be uninterested in the change in the release date window from cinema to home which given their enormous success and range which includes Marvel and Star Wars is no real surprise.

Whether such a proposal becomes a reality remains to be seen but the way in which modern audiences consume films is changing: many do, sadly, follow the route of watching films online through non-official means whenever they can, given how expensive a trip to the cinema can be, especially for families. But the change would help somewhat to arrest both the rise in piracy and the sizeable downturn in home entertainment sales that have slowly begun to increase. What do you think of the proposed changes?