subject: How Film Studios Are Using Dvd Rental [print this page] How the film studios and distributors - those lumbering great institutions which mysteriously corral the actors and directors we love to make the films which eventually end up in our living rooms - relates to DVD rental may seem like an academic question.
However, as many of the studios which once seemed to immovable and eternal, set in stone like some commandments bought down from a mountain by someone with a questionable accent, run into trouble it's becoming much more of a practical concern for DVD rental consumers.
If you have an online DVD rental account then you're likely to be affected by the push and pull between the rental retailers and their big bosses.
For example, the entire back film catalogue of the legendary huge studios of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer have recently been made available for users of certain sites as part of an online streaming service, although they're available to almost everybody in their physical form as a DVD or on blu ray.
In short, the market is becoming more competitive, more exclusive deals are being struck and that means that film lovers had better site up and take notice.
The deal mentioned above would certainly be of interest to those that Lovefilm as it will allow them to view films such as 'Gone With The Wind' as well as more modern classics such as 'The Graduate' and essential chick flick 'Thelma and Louise'.
As well as deals which allow DVD rental companies to combine by post physical rentals with online rentals there are a number of other advantages only offered by certain companies which movie fans should watch out for.
For example, recent link ups with digital rights companies such as Widevine which specialise in allowing people to stream content on a wider range of devices such as the newer internet-enabled TVs and through gaming hardware.
The partnerships with DVD rental companies make sense for the studios as well as the companies and their consumers as they struggle to monetise their films as they fight off an increasing tide of illegal downloads, historically declining cinema ticket sales and ever spiralling production costs.
Some companies offer certain hours of free streaming depending on the amount of DVDs that customers currently rent and other take advantage of being able to offer more physical DVD rentals to their customers.
This last point, for example, is a key component to any answer to the question Is Blockbuster Online Any Good?. Blockbuster being one of the major DVD rental services but certainly only one of them that's on offer.
