Cheap'n'early DVDs

Universal Pictures Rus (Russia) started a price war with pirates. At last it made up its mind to publish cheap DVDs earlier and cheaper. Cheap’n’early DVDs from Universal Pictures cost 150-200 rubles per disc (~$5,5 – $7,2). They are of lower quality and are released only four weeks after the first night. It doesn’t mean that full price DVDs are out from the market. Universal Pictures Rus plans to release them six months after the first night. Their quality will be much better, boxes will be premium with bonus discs and booklets. Full price DVDs cost 300-400 rubles per disc (~ $11 - $14,5).The first cheap’n’early DVD from Universal Pictures Rus was “Doom”. The experiment was successful – sales of pirated “Doom” DVDs became much lower.

Universal Pictures Rus is a pioneer among non-Russian producers in the segment of cheap’n’early DVDs. As for Russian producers, almost all of them fight piracy this way. Pirates make their profits being very fast and releasing new movies almost two or three days after the first night. The quality of such DVDs is often abysmal but they cost less than 100 rubles per disc. An average price for a movie ticket is 250 rubles. So it’s not surprising that many people buy low-quality DVDs just as movies demo versions and they later decide if it’d be fun to watch the movies in full screen with Dolby sound.

Via Vedomosti