Tsujihara Says Studios 'Making Good Progress' on PVOD

3 May, 2017 By: Erik Gruenwedel

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Kevin Tsujihara has turned monetizing stacking rights of TV shows into an art form since becoming CEO of Warner Bros. Another notable legacy project — shortening the theatrical window — remains a work in progress.

Tsujihara, along with 20th Century Fox Film Corp. CEO Stacey Snider, has been vocal about ramping up PVOD through a business model that would split revenue between exhibitors and studios. The strategy has been employed on a limited basis by Paramount Pictures, which made deals with select exhibitors to offer PVOD access on titles 17 days after distribution dropped below 300 screens.

“We continue to be having constructive discussions with the exhibitors to create a new window that will be a premium VOD model that hopefully will be beneficial,” Tsujihara said on Time Warner's May 3 fiscal call.

The executive earlier this year said he believed PVOD would be priced around $30, targeting non-blockbuster movies that could be enhanced financially with early in-home access. Tsujihara said such titles would be similar to Sully, Creed, War Dogs and Me Before You, among others.

The former head of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, along with other industry experts, contends any PVOD window must be mutually beneficial to both studios and exhibitors' business.

“I think we're making good progress,” Tsujihara said. “We really do believe that, by giving consumers more flexibility and more options when the awareness of the films is the highest, early on, earlier — forward, will actually create, overall, a bigger pie versus a smaller pie. So we're really excited about this opportunity.”
 

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