Thursday, February 19, 2004
Top local video rental shop is suffering from the rampant piracy across the Asia and sluggish economy that drive people away from renting DVD movies, according to the marketing director at Blockbuster Taiwan, Darrel Lee. market share.
Lee said: "Taiwan's video-rental industry has suffered a continuous decline for the past two or three years as economic sluggishness has caused people to spend less on entertainment." Blockbuster entered the Taiwan market in 1997. It has become the Taiwan's largest video-rental chain, with 126 outlets and a 40 percent.
Local shops selling new DVD movies (not longer than six months released from the movie house) cost around NT$300~800. While older DVD movies cost much cheaper from NT$50~200. However from the Blockbuster, the rental varies depending on the availability and the date of released. The rental fee for overnight to three days, can cost NT$30~100. While elsewhere in the night market around the Taipei city, a pirated new movies can be bought at a price of NT$100~200. However, the movie quality is poor because most of the film is being recorded inside the movie house.
Lee predicted this year situation is not improved either as the estimated value of Taiwan's video-rental market may drop 10 percent to around NT$3 billion this year. Back in the US, Blockbuster Inc, the world's biggest video-store chain, with over 8,500 outlets, announced late last month that it is exiting the Hong Kong market and will drop plans to enter the China's market. Blockbuster's major shareholder, Viacom Inc. announced it is planning to sell its 81-percent stake in the company and is taking a US$1.3 billion charge to reflect the declining value of its video-rental business.
By: DocMemory
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