Entertainment executives have been buzzing about distribution from their backroom meetings at Hollywood to their studio lots in Burbank.
It’s been a long process, however. digital distributionFilm executives have been somewhat blind to this phenomenon: the streaming and downloading of TV shows and movies to consumers’ computers, Internet enabled televisions, and mobile devices.
According to Peter Hoffman (CEO of Seven Arts Pictures Los Angeles), this could be Hollywood’s greatest problem, if not undo.
“Whether studios like it or not, consumers would now much rather stream their movies to their electronic devices than rent a DVD,”Hoffman. “We have strategically positioned Seven Arts Entertainment, both in terms of motion pictures and musical content, to deliver entertainment directly to consumers,”He concluded.
A report by PwC last year, which is still bullish on the growth of the film industry, supports Hoffman’s assessment. It projects that electronic delivery of movies via various entities like Apple and Netflix will increase from $4.8 billion to $7.6 million in 2015.
Microsoft is an example of a company which has successfully used technology to its benefit and profit.
Hoffman stated that while music companies were fighting piracy issues at court in the late 1990s, and early 2000s, Apple began gradually building an overwhelming presence in digital music markets via iTunes. This should be a lesson for movie executives.
“The film industry needs to take note of the lessons learned by the music industry and try to foster cross-platform competition, instead of focusing on one channel of distribution,”He said.
While Hollywood stars are still grappling with this new direction, some are seeing it as an opportunity for growth, marketing and the ultimate benefit to their bottom line.
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