Fox to test premium pricing for DVD kiosk rentals starting with 'Knight and Day'

The era of the $1-per-night price for all kiosk DVD rentals may be coming to a fast end.

20th Century Fox has signed a content distribution deal with NCR Corp., which operates DVD kiosks under the well-known Blockbuster brand, that will let it test prices higher than $1 per night for new releases the day they come out on DVD.

In exchange, Fox, which previously didn't have a content deal with NCR, will provide all of its DVDs to be rented, at $1 per night, through Blockbuster kiosks 28 days after they are released.

The deal is similar to one signed between Universal Pictures and NCR last month.

But, although Universal has yet to start testing premium pricing on any of its DVDs in Blockbuster kiosks, the first from Fox has been identified: "Knight & Day," the Tom Cruise-Cameron Diaz action-comedy that will be released Nov. 30. It will likely be followed "The A-Team," which comes out on DVD on Dec. 14.

An NCR spokesman said the company has yet to determine how high a price would be tested for the Fox movies.

Fox and Universal have for the last year been among the trio of major studios, along with Warner Bros., publicly complaining that the $1-per-night price charged by NCR and its larger competitor, Redbox, are undermining more-profitable DVD sales and video-on-demand rentals.

The initial solution they reached with Redbox was the 28-day delay for new releases. The test of higher prices with NCR represents a different strategy to provide consumers with the latest DVDs in kiosks at a profit level studios find agreeable.

It remains to be seen, of course, whether consumers will find the higher prices agreeable as well.

-- Ben Fritz

Related:

Universal to begin test charging more than $1 per night for DVD kiosk rentals

Comments

[Dee]

If I waited for DVD, then I can wait 28 more days until it $1. There's very few movies that get me excited enough to pay much more. Even at a buck, I sometimes leave Redbox without a movie.

[Wendy]

I'll wait the extra 28 days...I won't pay more than $1 for a video rental. Period. End of conversation.

[whiskey]

Wait a week, save lots of cash, or rent it now for lots of cash?

Given the junk nature of most movies, that's an easy call. Epic fail for Hollywood. Want premium prices, make every movie like the first Star Wars. Otherwise live with $1 or less.

[Lily]

I thought those were the most under preforming movies of the summer? If you really want to test the market wouldn't you try to do it with movies that at least did well?

[michael]

How to stop piracy: Put rental prices up. God theyre thick!

[John Johnson]

Ho hum. I suppose that the "kiosks" are cheaper than brick and mortar, but prices are coming down, not going up. Going out of your home to secure a movie to view in your home with such competitors as Netflix ...? Wanna bet on this initiative?

It is rumored, however, that Blockbuster has rights to access to a "blockbuster" of an application that outperforms everything else on the market. This ploy may just be a diversion. Let's wait and see how the bankruptcy shakes out, and then marvel at what man hath wrought in this electronic age.

[Anders]

Knight and Day didn't do poorly at the box office because consumers were waiting for the $1 DVD.