Ravenwood - 08/22/03 06:00 AM
Disposable DVDs are finally here. Pantagraph.com reports that the disposable rental discs, billed as "flexible time play" rather than disposable, will be test marketed in Bloomington, Illinois, Austin, Texas; Charleston, South Carolina; and Kansas City, Kansas.
The discs work by completely oxidizing after 48 hours of exposure to the air. Once the surface of the disc has oxidized, the DVD player will no longer be able to read it.
Givin the limited distribution of films available, and the $6.99 suggested rental fee, I don't see this working too well. Personally, I haven't rented a movie in over three years. Any movies I really want to see, I just buy, and with new DVD releases priced from $13 to $20, renting doesn't make much sense.
Help a hick understand. How can you make a "disposable" DVD for less than a permanent one? It would seem to require at least as much production.
Posted by: Michael at August 22, 2003 12:57 PMYou aren't. DVDs are, and will remain cheaper to produce. However, the marketing and extras will jack up the cost. Presumably the disposables won't have all the frills.
Still, it really has nothing to do with cost to market, and mostly to do with value added.
Look at it this way, audio CDs are cheaper to produce than audio tapes, but CDs are more expensive. The reason is the value added by CDs. (longevity, greater audio quality, skip to song, etc)
Posted by: Ravenwood at August 22, 2003 1:05 PM(c) Ravenwood and Associates, 1990 - 2014
