LIONSGATE. REDBOX SIGN NEW DEAL — NO 28-DAY DELAY

Clearly Lionsgate doesn’t believe that allowing Redbox and Netflix’s DVD-by-mail service to rent its films beginning the day they are released has hurt its sales. The studio announced on Tuesday that it had signed a new agreement with Redbox that would continue to make its movies available for rent at more than 44,000 Redbox kiosks on the same day they go on sale. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Paramount, Sony and Anchor Bay have similar agreements with Redbox, while Warner Bros., Universal and 20th Century Fox require a 28-day embargo on new releases. Noting that Lionsgate’s previous deal with Redbox expired in August, Home Media magazine noted that media analyst Eric Wold had told it that he wondered why it took two months to iron out an agreement. "I’m trying to find out what changed and why it took [so long]," Wold said.