Comcast rolling out test of $60 first-run, theatrical movies over VoD

October 6, 2011 By Mike Flacy

While the rising costs of movie theater tickets, more Americans are staying home to watch films in their own home theater. Comcast is launching a pilot program that will give families access to theatrical movies in the home.

Comcast Corp. and Universal Pictures are launching a test program that will provide Comcast subscribers access to films that are still in theaters. Film rentals will be priced at $59.99 and rolled out in both Atlanta, Georgia as well as Portland, Oregon to start. The program is ideally geared towards families that easily end up spending between $40 to $60 for movie tickets when visiting the theater as well as money on concessions. Comcast will launch this program nineteen days after the launch of Tower Heist on November 4, a comedy starring Ben Stiller, Eddie Murphy, Matthew Broderick and Casey Affleck. Comcast subscribers using HDTV set-tops will be able to order the film for $59.99 on November 23 in time for Thanksgiving weekend.

Films will be available to watch for 48 hours after purchase and the initial test will be available to approximately half a million people within the two major cities. Universal is also attempting to use copy protection measures to prevent a high-quality version of the film from showing up on torrent sites. Pricing is very similar to the cost of live-broadcasts of sporting events such as title fights. This service from Comcast is very similar to DirecTV’s partnership with Sony Corp., Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox and Universal Pictures which allows access to first-run movies approximately 60 days after release. The “Home Premiere” service from DirecTV costs $29.99.

Movie theater chains have already been fighting DirecTV’s service and will likely go after Comcast for the extremely short time between the release of the movie and the launch of the VoD alternative. Directors Michael Bay and James Cameron have also spoke out against the home delivery service for new films as they value the theater experience for their films. There’s also concern from industry analysts that a video-on-demand alternative will eat into physical media sales. New releases typically take between three to six months to reach formats such as DVD and Blu-ray.

Showing 10 comments

John Griffin at 2:43am 14th December 2011 I can't help wondering if the former Border's employee who thought $39.99 was a good price for Iron Man 2 on Blu-ray is working at Comcast now.
jesterking at 7:39am 12th October 2011 $60? Really!? 60$?! Wow... talk about their heads up their ass. Sure you would easily spend that much for a family of 4 to see a movie at the theaters. But we are not talking about going to the theaters. We are talking about watching it at home... i.e. they are increasing their market size. Don't let these people fool you. They can rake in the dough at $15-20 a movie over vod, without all the added fees and that a theater might bring in... Not going to work, and anyone who rents a movie for $60, just because it's a few months early is a fool and deserves to be taken for a ride.
John Griffin at 6:51pm 7th October 2011 I am a HUGE movie geek who LOVES watching movies at home, has children and can't always see first run movies at the theater because of time/budget reasons. So, in theory, I would think I'm in the target demographic for this offering. But I can honestly say that I would never pay $60 to watch a movie at home. What I'm paying for when I go to the theater is the social experience of watching a movie with a crowd of strangers and seeing how their experience of the film is the same or different than mine. This is ESPECIALLY true of first run movies and event movies such as Lord of the Rings, The Matrix or Star Wars where the energy and excitement coming from the audience cannot be found anywhere else.
Cassie Reeder at 5:43pm 7th October 2011 Are you serious? Wait a couple months and that $60 dollars could by you 4 new dvds...
Ian Bell at 10:27am 7th October 2011 Way too expensive. I would rather get the family out of the house and go to a theater where there is a better sound system and a large screen.
Sean Wilson at 5:17pm 7th October 2011 still kinda expensive
Chris Cavanaugh at 3:38pm 7th October 2011 If it's aimed at families then why aren't they rolling it out with a family movie?
Joe Lachiana at 2:55pm 7th October 2011 Cooool. F the movie theater!
Barb Gonzalez at 2:54pm 7th October 2011 hahahahahahahahahahahahah !
Jesús Segura at 7:23am 7th October 2011 Well if you add concessions it's easy to hit $40 to $50 for a couple. I can see this being a very attractive options to a number of people I know who either don't want to arrange for a sitter or have moderately sized families. I hope it catches on and there is a market for it.