{"id":35,"date":"2006-04-23T12:43:20","date_gmt":"2006-04-23T16:43:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/dmablog\/2006\/04\/23\/warner-home-video-slashes-dvd-prices-"},"modified":"2006-05-15T00:27:46","modified_gmt":"2006-05-15T04:27:46","slug":"warner-home-video-slashes-dvd-prices-again-in-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dmablog\/2006\/04\/23\/warner-home-video-slashes-dvd-prices-again-in-china\/","title":{"rendered":"Warner Home Video slashes DVD prices again in China"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a name='a56'><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Last year, Warner Brothers <a href=\"http:\/\/www.channelnewsasia.com\/stories\/afp_asiapacific_business\/view\/136851\/1\/.html\">reportedly<\/a> introduced cut-priced DVD versions of its Hollywood movies for 22-28<br \/>\nyuan (2.7-3.4 dollars) in China. The price cuts were a direct attempt to compete<br \/>\nagainst pirated versions of the same movie which sell in supermarkets for as<br \/>\nlow as 5 yuan (about 60 cents).<\/p>\n<p>However, <a href=\"http:\/\/msnbc.msn.com\/id\/12425693\/\">MSNBC reports<\/a> that<br \/>\nless than a year later, Warner is further lowering its Chinese prices once again, by about 50%, to<br \/>\n12 yuan ($1.50). The new cut-rate releases, called &#8220;simple pack&#8221; editions,<br \/>\ncontain cardboard packaging and few special features, compared to the typical<br \/>\nplastic DVD case and loads of special features like deleted scenes and<br \/>\ndirector&#8217;s commentary.<\/p>\n<p>US film companies are betting that the Chinese population is ready to accept<br \/>\npaying a premium for legitimate Hollywood DVDs. Indeed, as the urban middle<br \/>\nclass becomes more affluent, they will naturally want, and can now afford,<br \/>\nluxury items like DVDs. Through the internet and the Westernization<br \/>\nof China&#8217;s middle class, Chinese interest in Hollywood films is increasing. For<br \/>\nyears now, Chinese films have stood alongside Hollywood films in Chinese video<br \/>\nrental stores. With the government allowing only 20 Hollywood movies to be<br \/>\nshown per year in theaters, and a general dearth of theaters, watching DVDs<br \/>\n(and VCDs) at home is the way in which most Chinese consumers are able to enjoy US (and Chinese) films.<\/p>\n<p>Despite favorable conditions for Warner Brothers to sell its<br \/>\nDVDs, it\u2019s unlikely that Chinese consumers will switch from buying pirated DVDs<br \/>\nto legitimate copies. For one, the price point for DVDs, at about 5-7 yuan, has<br \/>\nbeen ingrained for years. Also, the quality and packaging of pirated DVDs are<br \/>\ncurrently very comparable to what Warner is offering. So, while a growing number of Chinese can certainly afford twice what they currently pay for DVDs, they have little incentive to do so.<\/p>\n<p>In the West, some incentive for purchasing legitimate goods arguably stems from a culturally instilled sense that purchasing pirated goods is moral and legal wrong.  However, in China, these ideas are nascent, if they exist in any meaningful way at all. Buying pirated content is the norm, and finding a legitimate copy of<br \/>\nmedia is the exception.<\/p>\n<p>So unless Warner can convince consumers that its product is<br \/>\nsuperior to pirated versions, either through incentives, moral justification,<br \/>\nor legal pressures, it&#8217;s unlikely that they will have success selling their<br \/>\nproduct at twice their competitors&#8217; price.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last year, Warner Brothers reportedly introduced cut-priced DVD versions of its Hollywood movies for 22-28 yuan (2.7-3.4 dollars) in China. The price cuts were a direct attempt to compete against pirated versions of the same movie which sell in supermarkets for as low as 5 yuan (about 60 cents). However, MSNBC reports that less than [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":248,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[359,372,373],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-china","category-film","category-piracy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dmablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dmablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dmablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dmablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/248"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dmablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dmablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dmablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dmablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/dmablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}