Warner Bros says that it is proposing to release ‘day and date’ (where this term comes from I don’t know, but it means ‘on the same day’) The Curious Case of Benjamin Button in just about all possible formats on 3 June 2009. That is, it will be released as a DVD, and as a Blu-ray, plus Foxtel Box Pay Per View, iTunes, Bigpond and, says Warner, ‘the online presence of various rental chains’.
One of the official reasons is: ‘we are offering a legitimate alternative to piracy’.
Sounds like a good idea to me. I don’t like the idea of Pay Per View, not the various on-line distribution mechanisms. But I’m all in favour of customer choice. Offer it all ways and let customers choose the format that best suits them.