Video Ezy launches "bulk" video rental scheme - via iPod

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 01 November 2006 05:37

Your IT - Home IT

"The successful completion of the Sydney field trials will mean that Video Ezy will be able to commence a commercial service during the first half of calendar year 2007," Mobilesoft said. The initial order will be for 10,000 HMCs with revenue of approximately $4.5 million and is forecast upon commencement of field trials in regional Australia."

The HMC is the result of a three-way collaboration between Video Ezy, Mobilesoft and Steve Hogben of The Content Factory, and there are patents pending, both locally and internationally. Mobilesoft and Video Ezy say they are exploring a joint venture structure to market the unit, and the service internationally. (Video Ezy is international brand with 156 stores in New Zealand, 128 in Thailand, 135 in Indonesia, 19 in Singapore, 9 in Malaysia, 1 in Fiji and 1 in the United Arab Emirates).

Paul Uniacke, managing director of Video Ezy, told this writer earlier this year that the company was not overly concerned about competition from movies streamed over broadband because he believed that broadband networks would be unable to cope with the 'peaky' nature of demand for rental videos.

"On Saturday night I get 100,000 people an hour coming through my [Australian] stores. They could come at any time of the day but video rental is very much a spur of the moment decision."

If those 100,000 people and more were going to their computer screen on a Saturday night and expecting to download and view the latest movie within the same few minutes that they can at other times or, worse still, expecting it to stream in real time, they would place an enormous load on the broadband network. The only solution would be peak time pricing to significantly reduce those peaks: which would likely send people back to the video shop.

iTWire has not yet been able to obtain from Video Ezy any pricing information, in particular on how it will recoup the cost of the HMC. However significant uptake of the service could reduce its costs very substantially: less floor space would be required for titles, fewer staff would be needed because fewer visitors would be coming through the doors.