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Technology, piracy bring end to DVD library era [India Business] [Times of India](Times of India Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) MUMBAI: The killer combination of online piracy, internet streaming services, high-speed broadband connections and impatient clients who can't be bothered to wait for the DVD guy to arrive at the door, has led to the slow death of the neighbourhood movie library. By December end, Mumbai's most well-known movie library, Shemaroo, which has been servicing the toniest sections of south Mumbai, with a collection of over 10,000 titles, will close down. In Bandra's Pali Hill, Movie Junction, which used to boast of a vast collection of Hollywood classics, war movies and foreign films, shut shop earlier this month. Other libraries across the city are barely surviving, with the movie rental business falling by 50 to 70 per cent over the last few years. Vikram Kapur, a movie addict, sums it up: "I want to be able to watch what I want, when I want, and not worry about whether the movie is available. So, I simply go online," he says, referring to websites like Piratebay or Torrent Reactor where any movie can be downloaded for free. The underlying technology called BitTorrent, which surfaced in 2001, has made it increasingly easy for people to download digital content from the internet quickly and anonymously from anywhere in the world. Now, all Kapur has to do is download the file, and then plug his laptop into his high definition television. "Besides, DVDs come with region code that doesn't let people watch them on their players if the disc isn't released and purchased locally," says Jeetendra Jagwani, a digital marketing professional and Hollywood movie buff. "With BitTorrent, people can download a movie, albeit illegally, from anywhere in the world and play it on their computers, much before official discs are made available." The trend is in keeping with what's happening globally. Blockbuster, the DVD rental chain that was once so popular that it was considered a key part of American shopping centres, shut all its stores in the US and the UK last year as new technology made the DVD business model unworkable. "The main issue is the timing of the movie releases," says Kalpesh Kerawala, owner of the 15-year-old Casablanca DVD Club, on Carmichael Road. "It takes about three months for a movie to come out officially on DVD, and six months for TV serials. People are not willing to wait. They are willing to play a pirated DVD even on their expensive home theatre systems," he says, adding that his business today is about 30% of what it was when he started out. Hiren Gada, director, Shemaroo Entertainment, says the company decided three months ago to transition from the rental business to the emerging digital market. "The DVD rental was always a small part of our business. But in the last three years, business fell by 50%," says Gada, whose library has a few thousand members. Clients have been given the option to either take back their deposits or buy the DVDs. In Khar, the popular DVD library, Sarvodaya, too has suffered a hit. Its owner, Manish Chandaria, says business is down 75% the past three years. "The movie rental business is finished. If Shemaroo is closing down, this is a clear sign for others to move on to something else," he says. "The entertainment consumption of people has changed. They do not want CDs, but movies on pen drives and mobiles," says an industry expert. For instance, Shemaroo crunches three-hour movies into 15-minute clips on the Internet with all crucial dialogues and songs. Veteran media mentor and former chairman of Reliance Entertainment, Amit Khanna, says the pay-per-view model has replaced the move rental model. "Movies on demand through satellite or cable is a business that is growing 100% per annum," he says, adding that the major clientele is switching to digital downloads. "DVD libraries are already dead. The few left in large metros are surviving on foreign films," says Khanna. Youngsters who have only known how to get news and entertainment on real time, laugh at the mention of lending libraries. "We don't even download, now we just stream," says Shirin S, with a smug grin. Besides, most youth looking for a quick fix get their doses of bite-sized entertainment from web services like YouTube, Vimeo and Vine. Meanwhile, for those who are not net-savvy, the easy availability of pirated DVDs - which cost less than an overnight rental - makes borrowing redundant. A popular store in the Fort area has become the regular hub for movie buffs given its incredible collection of pirated films, available for less than Rs 100 per movie. "Why would I bother renting when I can buy a film, leave it in my drawer, and watch it whenever I feel like," says Jay Shah, who buys his favourite American TV serials from the store all the time. Kerawala of Casablanca says that today, you can buy an entire hard-drive of pirated films and serials. "But luckily we still have that loyal clientele of slightly older people who have not kept pace with technology." For, there are many for whom 'stream' still means that little water body in Khandala, and a 'pirate' is the seafarer with the eye patch. (c) 2014 Bennett, Coleman & Company Limited |