How Disney Gets Reuters To Build Fake Buzz About Destructing DVDs
from the say-what?!? dept
Ever since Disney first announced plans to sell self-destructing DVDs, lots of people have been explaining why it will never work. Besides numerous attempts (and failures) by others to offer disposable DVDs, Disney came up with the idea of pricing these DVDs at nearly double the cost to rent a regular movie. So, it was no surprise when reports came out that the discs were not selling, and stores were getting rid of them so they could use the shelf-space for something that might actually make them money. In a last ditch move, it looks like Disney is trying to drop the price (though, only a tiny bit, down to $6). However, what’s more interesting is that the Reuters report on the subject claims that the lowering of prices is an attempt “to capitalize on exploding interest” in these DVDs. Exploding interest? Stores are throwing them out because they’re not selling. Shouldn’t a Reuters reporter look into the claim of “exploding interest”. Instead, they seem to accept Disney’s word for it. Of course, they should also be suspicious of the fact that they can’t seem to find any store owner who will talk about the offering, and simply report that “Disney said” 7-Eleven was carrying the self-destructing DVDs. Notice they didn’t even say “selling” because there’s no evidence that any are actually selling. If Disney really wanted to show such “exploding interest”, wouldn’t they have convinced someone at 7-Eleven to cough up a nice quote to give the Reuters reporter? This is no more than a press release from Disney that Reuters accepted as fact.
Comments on “How Disney Gets Reuters To Build Fake Buzz About Destructing DVDs”
7-Eleven Sells Them????
We have a ton of 7-Elevens in the area, including one right down the street, and I’ve yet to see any DVDs in any of them, much less these defective DVDs. Has anyone seen them in a 7-Eleven? I’ll have to ask the clerk tomorrow if they have any of these DVDs.
Disposable DVD
Funny thing is, if the discs were altered to allow them to be copied 2 to 3 times in a 48 hour period, they would probably sell like hot cakes. This would allow the studios to offer a whole catalog of older movies on an add hoc basis. If each DVD carried a unique serial number, consumers could prove they had purchased the film viewing rights, and so had legitimate copies, whether they left them on a hard drive,or burned them back to DVD.
Reuters
Reuters isn’t exactly known for the quality of its journalism, but this sounds pretty slimy even for them.
Bad wording!
If only it was an attempt to capitalize on interest in their exploding DVDs.
No Subject Given
Seven eleven will indorse anything even quasi technical. Thing you need to remember is that this is the very same company that says running Windows servers SAVES them money over running Linux.
Re: No Subject Given
If they can get no support for Linu then Windows servers def save them money over the long run.