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From: garyh@iddic.UUCP (Gary Hanson)
Newsgroups: net.video
Subject: Re: Why are prerecorded tapes so ?!$# expensive ?
Message-ID: <2003@iddic.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 12-May-85 01:24:30 EDT
Article-I.D.: iddic.2003
Posted: Sun May 12 01:24:30 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 13-May-85 03:18:10 EDT
Organization: /etc/home/asleep
Lines: 37

<>
 
     First, just as in the world of commercial software, the production costs
of a tape have little to do with the price of the finished product. I think
that the main reasons tapes are so expensive is:
 
     Market forces: Hollywood isn't so stupid that they won't let you spend
lots of money for their product. Enough people are willing to spend $80 for a
tape that they have little incentive to charge less.
 
     Greed: Tape prices are inflated to make up for the revenue they think
they are 'losing' to rental stores. The studios have always been irked that,
by law, you are free to do what you want with a tape (except copy it)-- like
renting it to people. In theatrical distribution, the theaters rent the copies
from the studios, and the studios have complete control over when and where
their product is shown, and guaranteed revenue from each booking. You may have
noticed that, while videodisk prices have gradually risen to nearly the same
levels as the less-expensive tapes, disks are still less expensive than tapes.
This is because a) there is no significant rental market for disks, and b)
disks are not counterfeited.
 
     Jack Valenti, friend to video-lovers everywhere :-) has promised that if
the first-sale doctrine is repealed (thus making it illegal to rent tapes,
except through the consent and control of the studios), and there is a blank
tape tax (aaaarrrrggghhh - to make up for the revenue 'lost' by people taping
off the TV), then prerecorded prices will drop. Disney and a few other studios
have said the same thing. While the efforts of Hollywood greedheads to enact
these laws have thus far failed, it is possible that these 'people' (and I use
the term loosely) may succeed in their efforts. BEWARE! They were able to
stop record rentals, but Warner Bros. tried to go to a rental-only system for
their videotapes a few few years ago, and were forced to abandon it. The
acting president of the U.S. has generally been quite sympathetic to the
greedheads interests thus far.
 
     Without eternal vigilance, it could happen here. (Joe Bob)
 
            Gary Hanson   Tektronix IDG    ...!tektronix!iddic!garyh