Skid_MacMarx Posted January 27, 2007 Share Posted January 27, 2007 AMERICAN film studios, sick of seeing little return from a Chinese market of up to 3 billion DVDs a year, are tackling the country's huge bootleg industry head-on.US studios typically license Chinese companies to release legitimate DVDs, but until recently prices were high and outlets few. Pirate copies, meanwhile, were ubiquitous and very cheap. Two years ago Warner Bros decided to try weaning Chinese off fake DVDs by providing the real thing more cheaply, more quickly and more widely. Last year, Chinese could buy the DVD (in Mandarin) of the latest Harry Potter and Superman movies two months before they were available to the rest of the world. "That shows the commitment to China we're getting from the studio right at the top," the head of Warner Bros' China operations, Tony Vaughan, said. Because foreign media firms can operate in China only with a local partner, Warner joined with China Audio Video, a publishing house affiliated with the Ministry of Culture, two years ago. Mr Vaughan, managing director of the joint venture, estimates the Chinese DVD market is 2.5 billion to 3 billion discs sold a year. "This shows that Chinese consumers love to watch movies," he said. Warner's target is the estimated 550 million urban Chinese, 80 per cent of whom own a DVD player. A study commissioned by the Motion Picture Association of America last year estimated that 90 per cent of the movie market share in China was lost to piracy, and the cost to the big Hollywood studios of piracy worldwide last year was more than $US7 billion ($7 billion). Most ordinary Chinese buy pirated DVDs from street vendors for five to six yuan (80 cents to $1) in the big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai. Foreigners also flock to various permanent shops and stalls that offer a far wider range but at higher prices, usually 10 yuan per disc. But Chinese can now buy a genuine Warner Bros or Universal movie from as little as 15 yuan. Deluxe editions retail for up to 45 yuan from an increasing number of official outlets. Hollywood's failure to profit in China is not just a result of DVD piracy. China does not have many cinemas and the Government permits only 20 foreign films a year to be released in those outlets. Other Hollywood studios are talking about joining Warner Bros, a move Mr Vaughan said his company would welcome. "Our competitors are the pirates," he said. News Corporation's 20th Century Fox announced a deal with a Chinese distributor late last year to introduce cheaper genuine DVDs and improve availability from its library, but other details were not forthcoming. The Chinese Government too is responding, and not just to continued pressure from Washington and its World Trade Organisation obligations. Beijing recognises the need to begin robustly protecting intellectual property for the sake of its own entrepreneurs, scientists and inventors. Crackdowns against piracy, often timed to coincide with state visits between Chinese and American leaders, have increasingly involved closure and fines. International intellectual property rights cases in the courts have also been rapidly increasing. From 2002 to 2006, Chinese courts dealt with 931 cases involving overseas parties. During that period, the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court ruled in favour of overseas claimants in 60 per cent of its 670 intellectual property rights cases, local media reported. At one Beijing bootleg DVD shop favoured by expatriates for its wide range and quality assurance, the owner, who prefers to be unnamed, said he had heard about Warner Bros' plans but said they were little threat to pirate operators like himself. "There's not that much available in genuine DVDs," he said. His store offers thousands of back titles, as well as latest releases: Leonardo di Caprio's Blood Diamond, Mel Gibson's Apocalypto and the box-office smash Dreamgirls. There are slickly packaged boxed sets of TV favourites such as Sex and the City, 24, Prison Break, Grey's Anatomy, BBC documentaries and French and Italian cinema classics. He does not foresee the end of pirated DVDs for at least five years. "Chinese people's income is low," he said. http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/hollywood...ge#contentSwap1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jokiin Posted January 27, 2007 Share Posted January 27, 2007 But Chinese can now buy a genuine Warner Bros or Universal movie from as little as 15 yuan This is the going price for genuine titles in department stores, 7-11 stores etc, they don't sell anywhere near as many as the street vendors do though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajm1503559545 Posted January 27, 2007 Share Posted January 27, 2007 Does make you wonder why we're paying $30-40 for new releases here though doesn't it? The studios want us to believe that "piracy" is inevitably going to lead to starving artists becoming homeless and destitute but they can afford to compete down to a price level that is next to zero in China but not here it at around $10 per disc. Why would anyone buy a pirated copy for $5-$10 if a genuine one can be had for $12-15? Why would anyone bother to sell pirated copies if you can only get $2 for them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tweet Posted January 27, 2007 Share Posted January 27, 2007 Does make you wonder why we're paying $30-40 for new releases here though doesn't it?The studios want us to believe that "piracy" is inevitably going to lead to starving artists becoming homeless and destitute but they can afford to compete down to a price level that is next to zero in China but not here it at around $10 per disc. Why would anyone buy a pirated copy for $5-$10 if a genuine one can be had for $12-15? Why would anyone bother to sell pirated copies if you can only get $2 for them? It's all about volume sales and what the public have been conditioned into believing what the perceived value of the product is. I think I read or heard somewhere that the production cost per disc is around 12 cents( not including packaging and handling). So, I don't have much sympathy for corporations playing a tune about reduced profits through software piracy if the price of their first release movies is so high, considering the profit margins per disc. And what is software piracy anyway ? Much like what is pornography........open to interpretation of moral values. C.M Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ausnew Posted January 27, 2007 Share Posted January 27, 2007 What amazed me on my various trips to Shanghai - 13 seperate trips alone in 2005, how they could possibly sell DVD9 pirate copies for the equivalent of $1.50 each !. Especially how this includes pressing, printing, distribution etc. Just shows you how much the DL blanks really must cost. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eyestrain Posted January 27, 2007 Share Posted January 27, 2007 As a matter of interest, as I live a sheltered life out here in the 'sticks', what is the production quality of the fake dvd's compared to the 'real deal'? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skid_MacMarx Posted January 27, 2007 Author Share Posted January 27, 2007 I think I read or heard somewhere that the production cost per disc is around 12 cents( not including packaging and handling). No wonder Big W can still make a healthy profit when they sell them for $8 And I bet the majority would question paying almost double for the quality of a HD-DVD or HD Blu-ray movie .. does it truly justify that price???..., ie. when you can purchase new releases from a number of chains for about $20 Considering, sites like HD digest, have been disappointed with the quality of mastering of a few of the recent HD titles...(ie both on Blu-ray and HD-DVD) you wonder why the majority of consumers are cautious... although the enthusiast will pay the highly inflated price and the production houses and manufacturers know this. Fortunately with game consoles, there is enough competition to affect price and maintain quality.. but in many other areas..its simply not the case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
betty boop Posted January 27, 2007 Share Posted January 27, 2007 No wonder Big W can still make a healthy profit when they sell them for $8And I bet the majority would question paying almost double for the quality of a HD-DVD or HD Blu-ray movie .. does it truly justify that price???..., ie. when you can purchase new releases from a number of chains for about $20 Considering, sites like HD digest, have been disappointed with the quality of mastering of a few of the recent HD titles...(ie both on Blu-ray and HD-DVD) you wonder why the majority of consumers are cautious... although the enthusiast will pay the highly inflated price and the production houses and manufacturers know this. Fortunately with game consoles, there is enough competition to affect price and maintain quality.. but in many other areas..its simply not the case. if anything this shows the massive battle the studious have in getting hd-dvd and blu-ray mainstream. they will have to get to the pricing of dvd for mass acceptance. if not they'll flounder as fringe niche formats jsut liek dvd-a and sacd. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajm1503559545 Posted January 27, 2007 Share Posted January 27, 2007 Very true Skid, that's why for mot of us it pays to be very selective. The price vs volume argument is something I'm not entirely convinced by. I'm sure some people will go buy twice as much at half the price (net spend being the same) while others will keep the savings and spend on other things. But there's also a group who'll buy at half price how wouldn't have bought otherwise. All swings and roundabouts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skid_MacMarx Posted January 27, 2007 Author Share Posted January 27, 2007 In a way, I feel there will be greater take up of the HD movie formats than DVD-A and SACD.. especially as the price of HD screens drop.. Interesting article over at AV zombie argues that the studios will receive a nice little earner from future HD movie sales: Don't write off hi def packaged media just yet. Despite reservations about the ongoing HD DVD/Blu-ray format war, a new study by Adams Media Research, which sets out to examine film revenue streams from 1996 through 2010, predicts that the major Hollywood studios will pocket upwards of 42 billion dollars worldwide from HD discs by 2010. The pessimistic outlook of many current studio bosses is as shortsighted as Hollywood’s reluctance to enter the video tape market back in the early Eighties, says AMR chief Tom Adams. http://avzombie.com/blog/2007/01/24/worrie...ed-says-report/ . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pgdownload Posted January 27, 2007 Share Posted January 27, 2007 Why would anyone buy a pirated copy for $5-$10 if a genuine one can be had for $12-15?I'd be asking why wouldn't you? Whilst many in 'western' culture seem to place great value (literally) on fancy genuine packaging, I can well understand their Chinese counterpart happy to wander down to the market grab 5 latest release DVDs for $20, watch the exact same content, with all the 'extras' and maybe put them in a cupboard somewhere or maybe just throw them out or swap them with the neighbour. Regards Peter Gillespie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajm1503559545 Posted January 27, 2007 Share Posted January 27, 2007 Fair point pg but the experiences of (*ahem) people I know, have been that the dodgy knock-offs aren't of the same quality as the legit item and I'm not talking about the packaging. Rubbish picture (even handy-cam recordings ffs!) and DD and DTS encodes that are just re-encodes of stereo DD tracks. The only real attraction with the knock offs is the price. Take that away and their competing against a superior product. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big_marcelo Posted January 27, 2007 Share Posted January 27, 2007 As a matter of interest, as I live a sheltered life out here in the 'sticks', what is the production quality of the fake dvd's compared to the 'real deal'? it varies ... some are the same (specially if the movie has been released for a while), some are a shrink version (DVD 9 to DVD5) and some (specially the new release ones) are copies made from a camcorder at the movies .... for aud$12-15 per movie.... most people would not buy pirate copies..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eyestrain Posted January 27, 2007 Share Posted January 27, 2007 for aud$12-15 per movie.... most people would not buy pirate copies..... Thank you. I have only brought dvd's from Big W, and all have been in the under $15.00 class. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skid_MacMarx Posted January 28, 2007 Author Share Posted January 28, 2007 Comparing prices of Monster House new release today .. JB had the blu-ray version for $40, Borders had the SD DVD for $33 andf Big W the SD DVD for $30.. I suppose if I was going to outlay that much for the DVD .. it really doesn't cost that much more for the HD blu-ray version. Although you must ask when the SD DVD version price drops futher .. will the Blu-ray price also... Sony has produced a very fine 1080p/MPEG-2 transfer that does this good-looking movie justice. The most immediately striking aspect of the image is its unique texture.. . . . "Monster House' also gets a very lively uncompressed PCM 5.1 surround mix. The film benefits greatly from very active sound design, with a wealth of interesting effects, clever use of the surround channels and a fun music score. this will probably be my first HD movie purchase... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrP Posted January 28, 2007 Share Posted January 28, 2007 As a matter of interest, as I live a sheltered life out here in the 'sticks', what is the production quality of the fake dvd's compared to the 'real deal'? Production Quality? You decide. Well, its either production quality or Disney has branched out into Adult Entertainment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skid_MacMarx Posted January 30, 2007 Author Share Posted January 30, 2007 Production Quality? You decide. Well, its either production quality or Disney has branched out into Adult Entertainment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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