Australia’s largest film distribution company Village Roadshow has said it is working on a scheme to cut the price of digital movie downloads.
Reports News.com.au, Village Roadshow chairman and CEO Graham Burke said the company was “looking to bring the prices down” and due to its dominance in the marketplace such a move may trigger industry-wide reductions.
Village Roadshow rakes in revenue of $300 million a year from distributing films and its digital sales on platforms like iTunes and Google Play are reportedly growing at more than 20 per cent a year.
Prices for digital downloads in Australia are higher than those for US consumers and that is often one of the reason used to justify Australia’s high rates of online piracy. While Mr Burke did not offer any specifics on how much prices will drop, the news comes as the Federal Government discusses tough measures that may be implemented to combat online piracy.
Yesterday, the entertainment industry launched a new Digital Content Guide as a way to help consumers find legal online sources for movies, TV shows and games. Organised into subcategories, each icon listed on the site points to another website for a legitimate media service. User’s can’t search individually for which subscription service contains which TV show, film, song, artist or game they are looking for.
In an interview last week, Communication Minister Malcolm Turnbull weighed in on the online piracy debate. “Anyone is entitled to sell their products for whatever price they like, that is their right,” he said. “But if you want to discourage piracy the best thing you can do is to make your content available globally, universally and affordably.”
