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Evidently Stealing and Piracy _CAN_ Bring Down Prices
Posted by: pgens ()
Date: April 22, 2006 11:20AM

At least if you are Chinese... from http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12425693/:

Warner tackles Chinese piracy with cut-price DVD
By Mure Dickie in Beijing
Financial Times
Updated: 12:41 a.m. ET April 22, 2006

Warner Home Video has begun trial sales in China of a movie DVD priced at just Rmb12 ($1.50), a move likely to anger consumers in developed markets such as Europe and the US, who typically pay $20-$30 for a recently released film on DVD.

The test sales of the modestly packaged edition of the The Aviator mark one of the boldest efforts yet by an international film company – WHV's Chinese joint venture, CAV Warner – to adjust its marketing strategies to the potentially huge but piracy-plagued Chinese DVD market.

The "simple pack" edition of the Oscar-winning epic, which comes in a cardboard folder rather than the standard DVD plastic box, went on sale earlier this month in selected Chinese cities, said Christine Hu, CAV Warner public relations manager.

"This is a first step to see if the consumer can accept this product at this price," Ms Hu said, adding that it was too early to judge the results of the experiment.

Hollywood studios have struggled to establish significant businesses in China because of tight government controls on the number of foreign films approved for release and rampant piracy in the DVD market.

Pirate producers have long benefited from loose enforcement of intellectual property laws in China and from state censorship that complicates DVD imports.

However, local distributors say that the best way to combat the pirates would be for international companies to cut both the time lag between the release of their films at the cinema and on DVD and the gulf in prices between legitimate products and pirated discs.

Pirate DVDs can easily be bought for prices starting at about Rmb6.

WHV has established itself as perhaps the most innovative of the foreign film companies since launching its joint venture with China Audio and Video Publishing House, a state company controlled by the Ministry of Culture, in February 2005.

Shanghai-based CAV Warner already sells recent-release films on DVD in a number of different packages.

"Silver releases" cost about Rmb22 and are often issued in all-Chinese versions that can go on sale in China a month before their US DVD release. CAV Warner later issues "gold releases" at about Rmb35 that include a number of extras.

Low prices are vital for a mass market used to cut-price pirate discs, but Ms Hu said there had been surprising demand for pricey box sets.
Copyright The Financial Times Ltd. All rights reserved.

© 2006 MSNBC.com

Re: Evidently Stealing and Piracy _CAN_ Bring Down Prices
Posted by: RbF_dark420 ()
Date: April 22, 2006 06:08PM

well the reason why its so cheap is because the average income in communist china is about $175 a month. Bill Gates is taking a several billion dollar hit just to sell 14 million Windows XP operating systems in china for $49.99 while we are stuck paying $299.99 for it here in the US. china simply just doesnt have the money and the corperations just want money and will sell the product for a high as price as they can get in that region or economy.

People in the US will pay $20 for a $4 dvd and $300 for a operating system there-for companies will sell it for that much, it is simple business

Only the paraniod will Survive...

Re: Evidently Stealing and Piracy _CAN_ Bring Down Prices
Posted by: Gravis ()
Date: April 23, 2006 05:17PM

RbF_dark420 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> People in the US will pay $20 for a $4 dvd and
> $300 for a operating system there-for companies
> will sell it for that much, it is simple business


actually, almost nobody buys windows by itself, they almost always get it with a new pc. the addon price for the pc with windows is about $100. methinks that dell and such get $50 or so for each windows copy so they make a profit. if m$ is selling for $50, that means there will be a resell markup. i think it may be a bit cheaper there but i dont think it's too substantial. where are you getting this info?

i fixed it... are you happy now... i hope not because the world sucks. :)


"the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."095042938540



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/23/2006 05:41PM by Gravis.

Re: Evidently Stealing and Piracy _CAN_ Bring Down Prices
Posted by: RESton Peace ()
Date: April 23, 2006 05:30PM

Due to NDA I am not allowed to make exact disclsoures. but Gravis is slightly high but mostly dead-on about Dell's take.

Whether or not he actually knows how to spell "substantial" is another matter entirely.

Re: Evidently Stealing and Piracy _CAN_ Bring Down Prices
Posted by: I agree ()
Date: January 11, 2016 11:29PM

Well said.

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