From Media Play News:

I'm not sure what the impact of this on folks like us would be. It's "just" distribution, so presumably the remastering of movies and authoring of discs wouldn't change. This is just for physical releases; digital is unaffected.

Probably nothing will happen at the consumer level.

I suspect it is to minimize their leverage from sinking faster and faster down the toilet, with giants like amazon and walmart.

Once that leverage is gone, they lose completely.

It sounds like the similar merger between Paramount Home Video and Warner Bros. I imagine the only difference we'll see at a consumer level will be packaging that has both Universal and Warner Bros. logos.

We may also see multi-packs that mix both Universal and Warner titles - and maybe Paramount too.

It's about cutting costs for a shrinking market. The studios see the writing on the wall for physical media. Notice how the agreement runs for ten years. They don't think consumers will be purchasing physical media anymore from Hollywood studios in a few years.

The real question is if the studios want to continue servicing physical media consumers like many of us are by licensing their content out to labels like Shout Factory. Or they could set licensing fees so high that it leaves no room for a third-party label to make money off it. That was a major problem just a decade ago before the studios gutted their home video departments.

It's actually different in that Paramount only contracted to WHV for a couple years and when the contract expired, they decided to bring it back in-house. This is a full-on merger.

I do wonder what effect it will have on their MOD operations, and on licensing titles to the boutique labels. (Edit: whoops, missed the fact that this is only for distribution)

They might not be wrong.

I'd be happy with going back to how it was in the laserdisc days, with just two companies (Pioneer and Image) doing most of the distribution and licensing. Cater to the people who are collectors and still care about quality, and let the masses consume the shit that was VHS and cable back then.

My first thought was of the brief Warner-Paramount team-up that led to two-packs such as Casablanca/The African Queen. But the talk of just distribution makes me think not.

That's all well and good but have you forgotten the prices for laserdiscs?

No, I haven't forgotten laserdisc prices- my collection would be MUCH smaller now if they had stayed! As long as the overall market remains bigger than the laserdisc market was, it'll be fine. But right when DVD came out, both Pioneer and Image started dropping the prices on older titles as a last-ditch effort to keep the format alive, but it was too little too late.

Why did Paramount not renew their deal with Warner though if it was working fine and they weren't happy with their own sales? Warner brought back a lot of out of print titles when they had Paramount, gave me a second chance to grab some of them.

HD DVD making a comeback?!?

I doubt much of this will make any difference at the consumer level. It’s just a way to continue to release discs in a dying market for a cheaper price

If it's a dying market, then why bother? Ah, ole Gizmo, still harking on the death of physical media after the format wars. I guess happy 12th anniversary to that!

I think there's still room for physical media - both the $5 dump bin of barebones discs and the boutique collector's market. If this keeps those going a little longer, then I suppose it's a good thing.

Because there is still some blood to squeeze?

Absolutely. Point being is that no matter how small, there will still always be physical media, to squeeze the little bit of blood that will always exist.

Retailers have drastically cut back on physical media so it’s really just new releases and evergreen stuff.

I wish I could dump 95% of my collection somewhere and get back more than $1 a disc.

And back in the 90's where you had to pay $100 for a VHS copy for a movie or wait a couple of months until Costco got it if it was a big blockbuster.