July 26, 2010

Clash of the Titans

Here's an odd one: Virgin have done a deal with Warner Bros to make this year's Clash of the Titans remake available through on demand before the DVD and Blu Ray discs are in the shops, but you have to pay a premium price for it and you get the DVD as part of the deal:
Virgin Media’s TV customers will be able to watch Clash of the Titans at home three days before the film is released on DVD. The blockbuster movie will be available via Virgin Media’s Movies on Demand service for £14.95. Customers will be able to watch the movie as many times as they’d like over a 48 hour period before receiving a DVD copy just a few days later.
Not sure if there will be many takers for this, but it's an interesting approach. Is anyone that keen on seeing the film that they would pay £14.95 to get it three days early? Amazon.co.uk is listing the film at £9.99 for the DVD and only £15.93 for a triple pack that contains the DVD, Blu-Ray and Digital copy, so Virgin's pricing looks way of the mark. And the Virgin offer ain't for an HD version - the on demand film is only SD.
As an idea it has potential, but this particular execution leaves something to be desired.
(Oh, and the film's pretty average if you haven't already seen it.)

8 comments:

Dan said...

I agree. Next time, they should offer SD and HD broadcasts, perhaps a full WEEK before its high street release, then price it so it's a few quid cheaper than JUST buying the DVD/Blu-ray alone.

Then build up an audience for that kind of deal, before tweaking it to be more lucrative.

Nialli said...

Now if they were talking about Inception I may be interested...
There has been talk of the film companies further reducing the window between cinema and on demand / DVD release. Maybe when films aren't that great it's good to exploit all avenues of distribution before word gets out that they suck?

BK said...

it's a 48 hour rental + DVD
should be 1 week HD rental plus Bluray for that price.

Jay said...

well most places have the DVD for £10, plus a 48 hour rent before its release isn't that bad, its created some interest in this sort of offer, maybe £12.99 would be a fairer offer.

BK - i dont know what planet you are on but £15 for a blu-ray and 1 week HD rental! the rrp for blu-ray is £27 sure play.com have it for £16 also a hd rental on top is another £5, to get both for £15 i don't think would turn any profit for them, so keep dreaming.

Jay said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Erich said...

Good idea, useless execution. Still, a step up from VM's usual bad idea/useless execution approach to most things. :)

This is actually one of the aspects of their VOD services I have wanted to see developed for some time, so I'm pleased they're finally getting around to it, although, as others have already suggested, the price and lack of HD makes their first step a bit of a stumble.

den2il said...

If you like that type of movie and require the ultimate audio (DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1) & video (VC-1 with 1080p) you'll go for the Blu-ray (Amazon £15.93) without a doubt.

P.S. Is it me, but are most of the HD channels out of sync? Top Gear last night was awful.

black_shadow_1981 said...

with the likes of 50mb net speeds and bittorrent sites i cant see many people going for that..... god bless aXXo and ps3 for being able to play avi lol