The war between Hollywood film studios and rental kiosk company Redbox is getting nasty, with both sides waging public relations campaigns against each other.
To recap: Redbox rents $1 per night DVDs at kiosks outside supermarkets and convenience stores. This angers Universal, Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox, who fear that such dirt-cheap rentals are cutting into DVD sales and sucking revenue from rental stores. Those studios are trying to delay distribution to Redbox until 28 days after a DVD's release date. Redbox has sued on antitrust grounds.
As the New York Times points out, Hollywood won't get much sympathy from consumers for trying to hurt Redbox, unless they can paint Redbox as the bad guy. Using a multi-pronged approach, that's exactly what the studios are doing.
For starters, the studios are connecting news reporters with mom and pop rental stores, claiming that Redbox is forcing them out of business (though it's funny, I don't remember Hollywood making that argument when Blockbuster was steamrolling the local competition). Ted Engen, the president of a trade group for these stores, told the Times that Redbox is "to the video industry what the Internet was to the music business — disaster."
Engen also argues that Redbox rents R-rated movies to minors, simply because a button push is all that's needed to confirm the renter's age. Of course, you do need a credit card to rent from Redbox, and if a kid is mature enough to have one, he or she can probably handle a film of any rating.
Finally, the studios are resorting to an argument that echoes its anti-piracy campaigns, that Redbox is flat-out killing the industry. My general feeling is that the industry isn't entitled to consumers' money. If the films aren't good enough to encourage sales over rentals, the industry is doing something wrong, not Redbox.
For its part, Redbox has launched a Web site, called SaveLowCostDVDs.com. The site avoids the attacks Hollywood is raising now, and mostly sticks to coverage of the lawsuit, spinning the studios as big, bad corporate titans.
Regardless of what either side says, it all comes down to money, with both Redbox and Hollywood trying to make as much as possible. As a customer who's tryng to save money, I can relate to that. I'm siding with Redbox.
