WALT DISNEY - VOD AND DVD RELEASES WILL SOON COME ON SAME DAY, SAY MOGULS

Walt Disney Co. chief Robert Iger and News Corp Chairman Rupert Murdoch each predicted that movies will be released on video-on-demand platforms on cable and the Internet at the same time they are released on DVD and Blu-ray disc. Speaking to a conference on digita l technologies in Carlsbad, CA, Murdoch said that simultaneous releases are opposed by "vested interests in the distribution chain." He presumably was referring to large DVD retailers like Wal-Mart and Best Buy, which have threatened to shut out studio releases if they are sold online at the same time they are released on home video. Speaking separately at an investor's conference in New York, Iger predicted that the demands of younger viewers will force studios to close the window between DVD and home-video releases. "I think it has to be day and date with the DVD business and the home video business and we've done that in some markets as a test," Iger said. "I think you have to have a rich library, not only the newest stuff but you have to have a lot of older stuff. I think we'll get there."

29/05/2008