Hacking NetFlix : Great Video Industry Overview in USA Today

I'm blogging a friend's blog of an article. Is that allowed?

I like the way he summed it up:

Studios make more from videos than they do from theater box offices. Last year, people paid $8.2 billion to rent videos and $16 billion to buy them, compared with $9.5 billion to see movies at the theater.

Equally impressive, studios in the first half of 2004 licensed 20 movies to VOD in 30 days or less. That's up from 14 in all of 2003 and three in 2002. This year's fast-to-VOD films include X2: X-Men United, American Wedding, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and Mystic River.

That's why he [Blockbuster CEO John Antioco] doesn't think studios will continue to shorten the period retailers have in which to offer hit movies before they appear on cable, satellite and the Internet. If they did, retailers and consumers would buy fewer DVDs. Because studios make about $2 on each VOD showing, they'd need about eight rentals to make up for just one $15 DVD sale lost.

Thanks Mike!