Industry Promotes TVOD Market With Ultimate Movie Weekend
Move over Prime Day, because there's a new fake holiday on the calendar: On-demand movie sites have declared this the Ultimate Movie Weekend, and are offering loads of specials designed to get viewers to stay home and enjoy a little screen time.
Organized by the Entertainment Merchants Association (EMA), this weekend offers discount rentals through FandangoNow, Google Play, Apple iTunes, PlayStation Store, Redbox On Demand, U-verse, DirecTV, Dish, Comcast Xfinity, and more. Participating movie studios include Lionsgate Entertainment, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures, and Warner Bros.
When consumers visit a participating online store, they'll find between 50 and 250 movies temporarily on sale. Recent titles will go for as low as $2.99 and older titles for $0.99. A push for the transactional video on-demand (TVOD) market, the promotion emphasizes new releases that aren't yet available on streaming services. Newer titles include A Star Is Born, First Man, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and Wonder Woman.
The EMA has created a website to promote the event, with links that take viewers to the various participating online stores. This type of event has already run successfully in Australia, France, and the U.K., the EMA says.
“We see significant potential to grow this sector of the industry, and in doing so grow the overall home entertainment market," notes Richard Smith, senior vice president of domestic digital sales for Paramount Pictures and the chair of the EMA’s Ultimate Movie Weekend planning committee.
In the first quarter of 2019, digital rentals earned $564 million, which made up roughly 10% of all home entertainment consumer spending.
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