In a piece of news that should surprise very few people, Lehman Brothers has cut the stock ratings on the Walt Disney Company, Time Warner and several other top entertainment companies. The reasons behind this include the rise of legal digital downloading cutting into advertising revenue and the concern of piracy cutting into primary profits such as DVD sales."To be clear, our fear is that the damage that digital distribution inflicted on the music industry will replicate itself in the movie industry, and our fears are too great to justify keeping neutral or positive ratings on the creators and distributors of movie and TV content," wrote analyst Anthony DiClemente.
The piracy concern is certainly a legitimate one. That's a tough nut to crack. However, given the overall crappy state of the economy (which will leave people with less money to spend on movies and buy DVDs), I don't think piracy itself is to blame.
I do love how the DiClemente cited digital distribution technology as "damaging" to the record companies and by extension the movie/television distributors. Adapt or die, I say.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-07-2008 @ 4:27PM
Carissa said...
Always blame digital piracy. Never take any responsibility for unworthy entertainment options. Seriously - how many movies do you see these days that make you want to buy the DVD so you can watch it at will on the big screen any time? I will buy Iron Man when it comes out. That's it. They don't impress me enough for multiple viewing.
In the old days, we used to have VCRs and we could record and keep episodes of our tv shows and now one cared. EVERYONE did it. We all created mix tapes off the radio. When cassettes became popular, we bought blank ones and (get ready for it), PIRATED our albums so we could also play them in the car! No - we did NOT buy a new copy of every damned piece of entertainment we had every time the technology changed.
Bottom line is there are very few must see TV shows, and very few must see movies any more. It's not worth the media its printed on. That's the problem. Create something worthwhile and they might be amazed at the DVD sales, etc.
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7-08-2008 @ 8:28AM
dewi said...
yay ditto to that!! finally, someone who agrees with me. This is what i have been saying to everyone. Make better and/or original movies and I'm willing to buy it. Plus here in australia, there are too many of the same shows, and too many repeats, so i dont even know if the next ep is the correct consequentive episode, even if they advertise it as being "new episodes". My derriere it is!!
7-08-2008 @ 8:29AM
Eric H said...
Piracy has always been a red herring, with music it was just an excuse for why over priced and under quality albums weren't selling, not they are trying to blame piracy for lack of quality and the recession we are in. If piracy were the issue then why is the game and porno industry still thriving? Those two can be pirated.
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