Fail Report: The Entertainment Companies

Features | March 6th, 2009 by Staggs

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fail_dogs Fail report: I’m appauled at the lack of creativity that has been coming from entertainment companies lately. They are seemingly punishing their customers by offering dumbed-down versions of their products because we aren’t buying their regular movie products anymore.

Fox will now be offering two versions of its DVD movies to consumers, a version for retail that will have the typical extra content and a different “bare-bones” version that will have nothing extra, only the movie (this comes from our friends at cnet’s Crave blog). Why would they do that?

Fox plans on using the bare-bones version to replace the regular extra-filled DVDs found in rental shops and try to seel to the people that really don’t care about the extra content. Why did they decide to do this? Recent reports show that more people have been renting movies rather than buying them in retail.

Here’s what Fox should ask themselves having been given that data:

Who actually cares about the extra features? Is it worth spending the extra money making two different products (features and featureless) for customers to buy something they are already getting on Netflix?
Why haven’t they started their own digital distribution methods to reap all of the benefits instead of paying a middle-man (e.g. Netflix)?
Are video games that much better? (Yes!)
What have we accomplished in our industry this year? (I’m not just talking about large profits, idiots.)

This goes for the music industry as well, who would rather sue their “potential customers” using gangster-like scare tactics rather than sit down and try to think about how to capitalize on our new digital revolution. Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, Jawed Karim, better known as the Youtube founders, are all billionaires for their big idea. Why didn’t the people in the actual entertainment industry do something when they had the chance?

They too busy trying to cover their ass when people first started downloading from the Internet. They took their customers to court instead of sitting down and actually giving a rat’s ass about the product they produce.

Lastly, piracy will never end. There have always been people selling bootlegged versions of movies, and the Internet is no exception and it will always exist. They are wasting people’s time and money fighting a system that has always been ongoing. Instead, focus on creating a better product. Do people that download movies get extra content, no. So why would they buy the DVD that doesn’t have extra content. Even if the bare-bones DVD costs $3.99 people will still pirate. It will have no effect.

The Fox situation reminds me of GM and Chrysler: both failed to notice their market on a changing path and are now being fed a “corporate welfare” by the government to stay in business. If they can’t offer a better product than competitors they’re no longer in luck.