Page 1 of Why are DVD`s so expensive???

Wouldn`t it be better for consumers if the studios/wholesalers sold DVD`s directly to consumers.

What I mean is, that retailers such as play247.com are probably buying their discs in for about £12 and then add an extra £6-£8.

By cutting out the middle man, we could get cheaper discs.

This makes sense because the studios get nothing after the initial wholesale of the DVD`s. So by selling them direct, they could add an extra quid or two on their wholesale price, make more of a profit, offer cheaper discs, and make everyone happy!!


BUT......Maybe this would end the importation of R1 into this country, which would be bad.

Same thing could be said for milk, clothes, cds etc but its just not practical

Now milk is hardly expensive is it and to cut out the middle man you`d need to milk the cow yourself.

Anyone fancy some teet squeezing - not me :o)

>"What I mean is, that retailers such as play247.com are probably buying their discs in for about £12 and then add an extra £6-£8."

I think if you check into it you`ll find you are wayyyyyy off the mark!!

Yes, if the RRP of £24.99 was followed by almost every disc, then you`d be right, but lets take something like Gladiator, currently retailing at around £18.99
(and cheaper in some places)

Whats the trade best price I could find out of eight wholesale suppliers?
£15.73 + VAT.
(Work that one out yourself...now you know why I haven`t pursued the supply business)

Oh, and I was ordering £1500 of discs to get that price.

AIWA 370 (officially) ROCKS!!!!!!

the cost of sending 100 discs to a retailer = 0ne drop,one lot of paper work, ect
the cost of sending 100 discs to 100 customers = 100 drops, 100 lots of paperwork ect

the cost of a retailer returns = 4 drops per year, 4 lots of paper work per year.

retailer mark up on dvd aprox 15% (when you take special offers ect in to it) and this is before the overheads are taken out.

This item was edited on Sunday, 11th March 2001, 00:08

Retailers aren`t remotely the villains in this saga. The retail market is so cutthroat these days that many businesses are only making the tiniest markups on disks. We`re talking a matter of pence rather than £6 or £7. No, the villains (surprise, surprise) are the Studios themselves.

As with CDs, DVDs are relatively cheap to stamp out. When you`re talking about thousands of units, the costs will probably be (an educated guess) around £3 per disk. CDs only cost around 50p to stamp in bulk but DVDs are more complicated and there is a failure rate due to the fabrication process. Where the costs of DVDs start to mount up are the costs of rights, royalties and the expenses incurred in publicising the disks, etc. Did you know for instance that it costs £1400-1800 (ex vat) to get a DVD through the BBFC classification process. That`s a hundred disk sales up the spout for starters.

Not that I`m defending them. DVDs are massively overpriced, as are CDs and Videos, but if we`re to keep our movie stars, directors, studio executives, Old Uncle Tom Cobley and all in Cocaine and Ferraris, then we`re just going to have to stump up.

If memory serves me wright they also have to pay sony every time a disc is mastered ($8000 i think) this includes if the disc has a fault or if is mastered for several regions.

milk is much more expensive in supermarkets if you buy from farmer probably cost you 5p a pint so you are paying 300% or more at the supermarket if you look at it in that way it is expensive all though it may not look it. But then again how many people can one farmer sell to? Distribution is the key issue here. If there are lots of dvd shops, more dvds will get sold. You`d have a larger audience
Shops get dvds cheaply for the simple reason that they buy in bulk. I dont know about anyone else but i dont fancy buying 100 copies of the same film no matter how cheap they are cos i wont be able to flog them

This item was edited on Sunday, 11th March 2001, 11:43

Football match...£20-£25 .....week of cigs around £30......Well thats how I convince my self to buy....oooooooh and the quality!

re. Jimbo

Yeah, I probably was off the mark there a bit. Sorry to play247 for using them as an example as well.

Just me having a grumble! But realistically, how much do you think we`ll be paying for discs come a few years?

Will the prices drop, or will the trend of better and better features being produced mean a rise in prices???