Adios, Little Silver Disk

Remember how well DVDs for animated products were holding up in the general DVD market decline? Studios were wringing their hands over the rapid decline of sales of the little silver disks.

But now Rupert's minions are building themselves an internet movie store:

... Fox is throwing significant weight behind its new digital offerings ...

What happens is that, before the silver disk versions go up for sale on Amazon or at the diminishing number of brick-and-mortar outlets across the U.S. of A., 20th Century-Fox will offer high definition releases at the end of their theatrical runs, among them: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Ice Age: Continental Drift, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days.

The idea, of course, is that Fox will pocket a bigger percentage of the cash flow without any icky middlemen. More and more consumers have broad-band, and people will be happy to pay less for the hot titles of the moment. (Who wants to have shelf after shelf of silver disks in their plastic boxes anyway? You watch most of them* two times and you're done.)

This business model will probably work well for our fine, entertainment conglomerates, providing they can beat back the illegal Russian movie sites. But it's one more heavy blow to the disk format.

* Excluding kids' titles. Kids watch their favorite cartoons five hundred times before moving on.