Movie lovers will now be able to download or stream selected blockbusters weeks before they're available on Blu-ray or DVD, as movie studios shorten the release gap in a bid to fight piracy. Via EzyFlix and the Digital HD program, consumers can purchase and watch movies like 'Muppets Most Wanted' and 'Divergent' before they're available for purchase on discs. The Digital HD program is supported by major Hollywood studios, including Fox, Sony, Universal and Disney.
The introduction of Digital HD follows the successful deployment of the program in the US, and EzyFlix are the first Australian digital video outlet to offer Digital HD support. Craig White, CEO of the company behind EzyFlix, says the hugely popular service will provide viewers with more choice, which is a good thing.
“Digital HD is now the fastest growing online video segment in the United States. It has helped drive a 47 per cent increase in US consumer spend in 2013 and this was a direct result of providing viewers with an incentive to buy movies, electronically, ahead of their availability on traditional video-on-demand services, DVD or Blu-ray disc and subscriptions services like Netflix,” said Mr White.
For EzyFlix, White says Digital HD will help the digital video outlet to stand out against competing platforms from the likes of Foxtel, and perhaps soon, Netflix.
“Digital HD helps set us apart from services like Netflix, Quickflix, Presto and other video-on-demand providers such as BigPond and Fetch because most of these companies have restricted content rights and new release availability due to their chosen business models and/or technology platform. For example, Netflix doesn’t offer the latest releases until months or years after their initial release,” Mr White explains.
While subscriptions services have proved popular overseas, White says that many movie lovers still prefer to have ownership of content, which has up to this point has meant buying discs. EzyFlix hopes that Digital HD will offer consumers a digital version of the movie ownership experience, and plans to promote the format using similar strategies that retailers and studios have used for discs in the past.
“Our plan is to help create awareness and wider adoption of Digital HD by emulating strategies that traditional retailers and studios themselves used to convince consumers to buy, not rent, DVDs in the mid-2000s. Here, one of the key drivers for Digital HD is that it appeals to the same desire for exclusivity that avid movie lovers seek. It’s a strategy retail stores have adopted for years,” says White.
A full list of early access titles can be found here.
