VSDA: What's The Point? I've just returned from my trip to the VSDA in Los Angeles and can safely say, what's the point? Now granted, this was my first visit to the VSDA, so I din't have a real solid plan of attack. But after going through the show for about three and a half hours I essentially came away with no real news of interest to me. Here's what I did come away with.
The video distributors are vultures, waiting to devour the remains of wounded animals. The current wounded animal is Image Entertainment. Their problems are mostly due to their current struggles with the efficiency of the new Las Vegas warehouse. Other distributors know this, and in the case of Valley Media Distributing (I think that's the correct name), I was literally pulled aside, one step below physical force, and handed information about their company without asking. Every other distributor that was at the show, my store already deals with, or was at least looking into it. Walking by the distributors made the show feel somewhat like walking through a car dealership.
My primary objective at VSDA was to finally meet my sales reps from Image and Pioneer. It was sort of odd going through their booths, since just a scant two years ago they were primarily laser disc, and now they shifted mostly into DVD. There was no major news to get out of these distributor's, and I probably didn't ask the right questions. Other web sites, such as the Digital Bits and DVDfile, have covered Image's major announcements. The one thing they didn't covered was a minor tidbit from Pioneer/Paramount. There are talks for the Indiana Jones Trilogy on LD! I know many of you don't care, it's DVD or nothing, but many people have been anxiously awaiting (three and a half years!) this announcement. Paramount wants to sell a minimum of 1,000 copies of this title. Paramount, as I stated to one of your sales reps, 1,000 copies of an LD will not be a problem, especially with no DVD in sight. Ask Image/Dreamworks about Saving Private Ryan, you'll be leaving money on the table.
The most interesting display I stumbled upon was from DVD content provider, Slingshot Entertainment. They had some new DVD games on display that looked incredible. These games will be currently based on Superman (putting the N64 game to shame), Xena, Ace Ventura? and Popeye. But more are in development. I really looking forward to these.
When I started to explore the main studio booths, one thing became fairly clear, this show is primarily a schmooze fest, which is not really my cup of tea. The actual title announcements from the studios have already been known for almost a week, hell some for months. The only bombshell was Paramount/Lucasfilm's announcement of the Indiana Jones promotion. Due to the promotions and autograph signing, it was near to impossible to find a sales rep to talk with at the main studio's booths. The only rep I was able to speak with to at length was a very nice woman from Paramount. The was one rep I found from Universal, was patient with me, but he was just sales, and didn't know too much about DVD. He did show me the new, on-line database that Universal will be setting up for retailers, much like Buena Vista's set up. Speaking of Buena Vista...
Fox Video, Buena Vista, MGM and Artisan were all missing from the main exhibitor's displays. They had apparently set up in small private meeting rooms in another part of the convention center. These studios no longer feel it is necessary to display a full fledge exhibit at this show, and other studios are now evaluating this idea. Why has this happened? Fewer and fewer independent retails are showing up to the VSDA convention. While I'd like to say it's due to lack of interest, it's most due to fewer independent retailers in the marketplace.
The VSDA was established as a non-profit organization to give the independent retailers a voice with the studios, in order to compete with the big chains such as Block-ho, I'm sorry, I mean Blockbuster. The membership, and board of director's, consist primarily of members from the big chains now. Contrary to the VSDA's original mission, they are now the voice of the big chains and not the independent retailers. Just last year there was a new organization called the IVRG established as an alternative to the VSDA, since the VSDA wasn't getting the job done. In what may be a good sign, for the future, I believe the head of the IVRG is now a member of the VSDA's board of director's, there may be some hope.
The VSDA convention, used to be a major event in the industry, the tent pole titles for the second half of the year were usually announced here, but there's a severe lack of new product. The studios do not live on new product, they survive on re-packaging old product or catalog. Most retailers no longer care about old products, especially in the VHS arena. How many times can you repackage Porky's on VHS? There's plenty of independent studio product from companies such as Avalanche, Full Moon and Sterling, but most consumers don't care, they want the blockbusters.The home video market is also being damaged by factors such as PPV and Satellite.
The VSDA's days are numbered. The convention, may be seeing it's final few days this year. Personally, I would not be shocked if this wasn't the last one. Unlike the Winter CES, where something new is always shown, there's nothing at the VSDA one hasn't seen before. There are no answers for it's members either. And you though the Titanic was a sinking ship?
Dan Linzmeier, FIT Production
Fitprod@aol.com
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