Friday, October 9, 2009

20th Century Fox Distributing Rental Editions of DVD Titles

As studios look to maintain revenues during these tough economic times, more and more of them are offering rental and retail editions of select DVD titles.  Rental editions are meant for any organization that loans their materials, whether home video rental businesses or libraries.  Retail editions are meant for the home video consumer marketplace.

Similar to Paramount’s two-tiered releasing strategy (“Paramount Experiments with Two-Tiered Pricing on Upcoming DVD Releases”), 20th Century Fox will also now offer rental and retail editions of select DVD titles.  However, Fox’s strategy differs in that both the rental and retail editions of their titles will feature the exact same edits of the films and will be the same price.  Additionally, rental editions will not contain any bonus features, but they will contain additional movie trailers and previews. Retail editions will have bonus features.

Libraries ordering rental versions will receive their orders before street date.  Because shipping dates for retail editions from Fox can vary, customers who order the retail edition of a title are not guaranteed to receive it before street date.  Midwest Tape recommends that libraries purchase the rental edition of Fox’s DVDs in order to receive them before street date.

As more studios follow suit in releasing different editions of select DVD titles, we’re developing ways to make these different versions even more apparent on our website.  Starting today (Friday, October 9, 2009), when users search on http://www.MidwestTapes.com, any DVD titles that have retail and rental editions will be marked with corresponding symbols.  Similar to our cart symbol, when a user mouses over the retail/rental symbols, text boxes will appear that provide general information of that particular studio’s rental/retail DVD release strategies.  Additionally, the titles will feature in parentheses whether they’re retail or rental editions in their title lines.  Please reference the screenshots below to view examples of these symbols and title line labels.



Retail Edition of Night at the Museum: Battle at the Smithsonian



Retail Edition of Night at the Museum: Battle at the Smithsonian with mouseover text




Rental Edition of Night at the Museum: Battle at the Smithsonian




Rental Edition of Night at the Museum: Battle at the Smithsonian with mouseover text

Below is a list of the current rental editions provided by Fox.  We have moved all Fox retail edition orders to the rental editions to ensure deliveries before street dates.  If you would like the retail versions of any of these titles instead, please contact Customer Service at 800.875.2785.

Title
Stock Number
Ice Age 3: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs
Rental: TWT2262514D
Retail: TWT2262512D
Aliens In The Attic
Rental: TWT2261098D
Retail: TWT2261096D
I Love You, Beth Cooper
Rental: TWT2261078D
Retail: TWT2261076D
Night At The Museum: Battle Of The Smithsonian
Rental: TWT2262590D
Retail: TWT2262588D
500 Days Of Summer
Rental: TWT2263464D
Retail: TWT2263462D

If you have any questions regarding Fox’s (or any studio’s) two-type DVD strategy, the content of retail and rental editions, and/or the updates we’ve made to our website in regards to these two DVD types, please post them here as comments or contact our Customer Service Department at 800.875.2785.

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