By Ray Pride Pride@moviecitynews.com
Three Times a charm in the IFC-Comcast basket; plus Fox's Chernin wants some
Details on the IFC-Comcast deal for simultaneous theatrical and video-on-demand release are all across the media, including Andrew Wallenstein‘s dispatch in the Reporter, and while many of the early titles in the PR I’d read were just so much bunkum, there are interesting twists. “Comcast Corp. and IFC Entertainment [set] a deal Tuesday that will ensure simultaneous distribution for independent films in select theaters and via video-on-demand.” Titles like American Gun; Sorry, Haters; and CSA: Confederate States of America are the kind of shelf items you expect to languish, but the 9 million subscribers to Comcast’s services will get more subversive material, including Caveh Zahedi‘s subversive, semi-autobiographical essay film, I Am A Sex Addict and strikingly, Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-Hsien‘s masterpiece, Three Times. (Hou’s films are virtually unknown in the US.) The movies, up to five each month, will be marketed as “IFC in Theaters” for $5.99 a pop. “The theatrical distribution business for smaller, specialized films has become more challenging, and we saw this as an opportunity to create a national art house to be available to everybody from the outset,” IFC Entertainment president Jonathan Sehring told Wallenstein. While many theater owners are reluctant, the Cuban-Wagner combine, which includes Landmark Theaters, will participate. Notably, “VOD programming cannot be copied or easily pirated, which might quell theater owners’ concerns that viewers could buy a day-and-date-distributed DVD and pass it around.” Also in the Reporter, Fox wants in on HD VOD $$$.
“News Corp. is betting that people will pay $25-$30 to watch Fox films at home in high-definition quality via cable and satellite TV 60 days after their theatrical release.” Newscorp pres and COO Peter Chernin reported that the conglom “has been “talking to the cable operators and satellite operators about the idea of a 60-day, high-priced high-def rental” offer costing $25-$30…. At this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, Chernin first mentioned that Fox was working on a plan for HD-to-home video on-demand offers 60 days after theatrical releases to establish a new HD window between theatrical and DVD runs amid a recent trend of shrinking distribution windows… Chernin on Tuesday indirectly admitted that $25-plus might sound like a high price point, but he argued that more than 1 million Americans spent more than $25,000 last year on a home cinema setup, and they would be “desperate consumers” of such offers.”