DVD kiosk supplier Redbox in legal fight with movie studios over release dates
By Sean P. Aune
While consumers seem to love the Redbox DVD rental kiosks, at least three film distributors feel it is hurting the DVD rental industry and want to put a stop to low cost rentals. So, Redbox is taking them to court.
Redbox has taken the DVD rental industry by storm with its bright red DVD rental kiosks. Showing up just about anywhere you can imagine, consumers can rent all of the latest DVD releases for just $1, any time of the day or night. It’s cheap, it’s convenient, and at least two movie studios want to put a pretty big hurt on it.
According to Video Business, both Universal Studios Home Video, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment and Warner Home Video have decided that Redbox offering rentals for a $1 a day on the release date of videos is harming the rental industry. With this in mind, all three studios have opted to hold all new releases from Coinstar, the owners of Redbox, for 28 days after initial release of their films to the home video market. As is to be expected, Redbox is not pleased with these decisions and have filed suit against the three studios on the grounds of antitrust complaints.
The only case to go before a court thus far is the one against Universal, Which U.S. District Court judge Robert Kugler has ruled may proceed. He did, however, dismiss counts in the suit that were included that related to copyright misuse, and interference with Redbox’s dealings with video distributors Ingram Entertainment and VPD.
On the flip side of this situation, both Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and Lionsgate have signed long term agreements with Redbox worth $460 million and $158 million respectively. Those deals, plus one with Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, do limit the sale of used DVD copies of films rented by the video kiosk company.
In an effort to plead its case to the masses, Redbox has launched an information web site called SaveLowCostdDVDs.com to help educate consumers over what exactly is happening with these cases.
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