Source: The Standard
Fearing 'Napsterization,' the studios focus on taking control of digital distribution.
In show business lingo, 2001 opened strong: Holiday moviegoers spent near-record amounts at the box office. But the new year's good cheer masks nagging fears among Hollywood executives about a threat to the bottom line that they can neither see nor touch '“ or even know for certain exists. The threat is the specter of a new Napster-like sensation that would make it easy for Internet users to bypass the studios and to view and swap movies for free. No service with such wide appeal looms '“ yet '“ but studio executives have been studying the music industry's experience with file-swapping services such as Napster. And while no one will say it out loud, privately they admit they're terrified Hollywood will be Napsterized: that some college kid will post a movie-swapping program that will explode in popularity, swiftly creating a ravenous audience of millions of users who will expect free access to Hollywood blockbusters. |
The now-defunct Scour Exchange, which enabled its users to hunt for and exchange multimedia files over the Internet, came close enough to cause a scare '“ although lack of bandwidth and huge file sizes kept it from generating a feeding frenzy. But digital distribution of movies is inevitable, and studios are finally making moves that suggest they intend to control it.
It's do or die for the studios. Making and distributing movies costs hundreds of millions of dollars '“ and moviegoers, cable audiences and patrons of video rental stores need to pay to see them. "Paying" is the important part.
Now the studios have been jolted to action and are making a Net strategy part of the core business. "The studios have a history of watching, waiting and studying. They would have preferred to be able to do that, but the experience with Napster has told them that option is not available," says Skip Paul
