Over the past year, many entertainment companies have opted to end similar licensing agreements with rental services like Redbox and Netflix. Most recently, Warner Brothers decided not to renew its deals to rent DVDs, and failed to negotiate a new deal that would force the company to wait 50 to 90 days after they hit retail stores. Of course, Redbox can still offer the new releases earlier, but to do so it has to pay for each DVD at the same price offered to consumers — meaning Redbox’s operational costs rise. (For example, Redbox is doing this for all Warner Brothers new releases.)
Under the deal with Sony Pictures, Redbox also has the option to license Blu-ray movies from Sony through September 2014.
Making its movies available for rental immediately is a smart move for Sony, because it should keep people from pirating movies as an alternative to buying the movies outright at retail price. The licensing agreement is also beneficial to Redbox because it’ll keep customers happy. And with the imminent launch of Redbox and Verizon’s DVD/streaming joint venture, it never hurts to make sure there’s a wide selection of current movie titles to compete against the likes of Netflix.
Via Engadget; Image illustration via Tom Cheredar/VentureBeat
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