Our video label made it into the trade news this week, but not in a good way. We're listed as one of the creditors in a rather unfortunate bankruptcy filing by an old business associate of ours. Their demise represents one more domino, albeit a small one, in the continuing tumble of the old dvd distribution paradigm. We sure would like to have the money we're owed, but more importantly for us, and our independent filmmaker producers, we want to navigate the future of non theatrical, or ancillary distribution in a profitable manner.

One hint about how to do this came from the CEO of Warner Brothers, Jeff Bewkes, who announced that future dvd releases by Warner Brothers would be available through Video On Demand the same day as they are available in stores.

Studios and the dvd industry at large have long protected the exclusivity of dvd releases, limiting their availability to finished goods in an effort to support both rental and sell thru of these titles before they went to television. Obviously the proliferation of Video On Demand services has changed all that and in my opinion it was just a matter of time before this sacred cow of dvd distribution was sacrificed at the altar of profitability.

So now a huge domino has fallen. It won't be long before the other studios follow suit. Once this happens, it might actually be a very good thing for independent dvd releases. Shelf space will loosen up and we might actually get some of our titles back into mainstream rental and retail on a consistent basis.

I am curious as to how many of our intrepid readers actually watch independent films, or try to watch independent films, with Video On Demand. Finding this kind of title without knowing its exact name can be nigh impossible on many of these services. Have you had success doing so? Do you even try to navigate VOD? Or is the traditional rental sell thru delivery system, perhaps tweaked by a Netflix membership, still the main way you find films. The future is upon us. How do you deal with it?

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