PREMIUM VIDEO-ON-DEMAND IS HISTORY, SAYS REGAL CHIEF

The battle between movie exhibitors and studios over “premium” video-on-demand (VOD) is over, and the exhibitors have won. That was the implication in Regal Entertainment Group CEO Amy Miles during a talk to the MKM Partners Entertainment and Leisure Conference in New York. As reported by the Hollywood Reporter, Miles told the group that the exibitors’ relationship with the studios had become “very solid” after a 2011 showdown when several exhibitors warned that if the studios went ahead with plans to offer movies online or through pay-TV providers at a premium price while they were still in theaters, the theaters would boycott them. “Our relationship with Hollywood is very solid — very different from when we were having that premium conversation,” Miles said. She added that the studios now appear to be focusing on sell-through rather than on rentals. “So when we look at most recent trends in windowing, it is not encroaching on theatrical.” Regal is the nation’s largest movie exhibitor.