The cable industry and 10 Hollywood studio partners are preparing a national marketing campaign to tout the collapsing of the VOD window.
The group is investing $10 million in an integrated marketing campaign, according to CTAM.
The year-long 2011 campaign features latest hit movie titles, many of which are available on Movies On Demand on cable the same day as DVD and 28 days before most other rental options, the organization said. VOD typically didn’t get new films until a month after DVD release.
The ads are using the old Salt-N-Pepa tune “Push It” as they encourage viewers to take advantage of the service.
“An increasing number of consumers are interested in renting movies at home on-demand on cable,” said Michele Edelman, vice president of worldwide marketing, programming and acquisitions for Warner Bros. Digital Distribution and Movies On Demand initiative co-chair. “So we plan to be there with the hottest titles at the earliest opportunity.”
National VOD distributor iN Demand reports a significant increase over the past four years in the number and percentage of movie titles premiering on cable’s MOD platform day-and-date with DVD. In 2010 alone, there were 132 films released day-and date, more than double the number in 2009, CTAM reported.
The organization also cited stats from Rentrak, which said that based on 2010 set-top box data, paid VOD transactions grew 11 percent to 116 million, with revenue up 15 percent in the first half of 2010 versus the same period in 2009.
The cable companies in the initiative include Atlantic Broadband, Armstrong, BendBroadband, Bright House Networks, Charter, Comcast, Cox, Insight, iO TV, Mediacom, Suddenlink and Time Warner Cable.
The studios include 20th Century Fox, Image Entertainment, Lionsgate, NBC Universal, Paramount, Relativity, Sony/Columbia, Summit Entertainment, The Walt Disney Studios and Warner Bros. Entertainment.