Malcolm

It is now a regular Saturday and Sunday chore to check all the newspapers to see what DVD they are giving away this week. I fully approve of this type of promotion when the DVD is included inside the newspaper, but beware of the small print as some newspapers on the banner front page state "Free DVD" however they require the reader to join a postal rental company, or purchase one or more DVD's to receive the free DVD.

sanndevil

Yes, that's a crafty one - and one I don't intend falling for. I grab hold of the newspaper and fold it a couple of times whilst the newsagent isn't looking. If the paper offers no resistance, there's no DVD included. Or if there is, it's in pieces!

The first movie freebie was A PRIVATE FUNCTION in the Saturday Times. Good that it was in widescreen, but the sound quality was atrocious! Also, I dislike having to sit through various adverts before the feature starts. I'm afraid I wasn't born with much in the way of patience!

Hugo

I agree with you about the sound quality of the freebie DVD of A PRIVATE FUNCTION but the commercial DVD had the same problem and I seem to remember that the sound was poor even in the original cinema version. Recent freebies have also had the same problem. A HANDFUL OF DUST was poor and the recent Sunday Times giveaway WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD had an absolutely apalling fuzzy soundtrack. What happened to British sound engineers in the 1980s ?

Fellwanderer

The 1980s - the decade that knew the price of everything and the value of nothing.

FELL

Johnny English

I've noticed that a lot of these "freebies" eventually end up being offered for sale on e-Bay. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/no.gif[/img]

David Brent

Yeah, and the postage usually costs more than the DVD.


Dave.

Malcolm

Further to my posting above, the other gimmick to make you impulse purchase the newspaper is to have the large front page banner headline FREE DVD. Only to find a cut out voucher to take to a Woolworth, Blockbuster, or W H Smith store to collect. Then on arrival at the store to be informed "Sorry dear! They have all gone!"

sanndevil

Looks like everyone is talking about the great DVD giveaway - see the article from the BBC website!

Malcolm

Free DVD "Wings of Desire" with The Independent print edition on Saturday 15 October
A hugely acclaimed and multi-award winning movie, including Best Director for Wenders at Cannes in 1987, which was remade in 1998 into City of Angels starring Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan.

The sky over Wenders’ war-scarred Berlin is full of gentle, trenchcoated angels who listen to the tortured thoughts of mortals and try to comfort them. One, Damiel, (Bruno Ganz) wishes to become mortal after falling in love with a beautiful trapeze artist, Marian. Peter Falk, as himself, assists in the transformation by explaining the simple joys of a human experience.

Told from the angels’ point of view, the film is shot in black and white, blossoming into colour only when the angels perceive the realities of humankind.

Winner of five awards including Best Director at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival.

The following have been copied from other forums, so please check newspapers before purchase:-
"The Last Emperor"with The Times on Saturday 15 October
"Whistle Down The Wind" with The Daily Telegraph on Saturday 15 October

Freddy

Mnay thanks for that Malcolm, usually only buy a Saturday or Sunday paper, never both, so it's the Independent for me. A great film.

Freddy

julian_craster

Are you a weekend tart?

Good! ......I got your attention.....

I mean, of course, a weekend *newspaper* tart !

<<In fact, such offers seem to be creating an army of "newspaper tarts" -
people who buy for the giveaway, rather than the paper itself>>.

From
Roger
(who is proud to be one....50 'free' discs to date....)


From BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4330826.stm

How can papers afford to give away DVDs?

Millions of newspaper readers have been bulking out their DVD collections
recently with free giveaways from the national press. But how can papers
afford to be so generous?

A DVD of the 1999 Bafta-winning British comedy East is East sells for about
£5 on the High Street. Alternatively, you could have picked up a copy at
your local newsagents at the weekend, free with the £1.20 Guardian.

On the same day the Times was offering a DVD of the 1972 Liza Minnelli
classic Cabaret (retail price about £15) while Independent readers could
enjoy a free copy of the Oscar-winning Catherine Deneuve film Indochine,
which would otherwise set them back about £8 in the shops.

A film buff might point out that these giveaway DVDs lack the extras -
subtitles, deleted scenes, etc - included in the shop-bought versions.

But a free movie is a free movie. Which raises the question - how can papers
afford it?

They can't, says media commentator Roy Greenslade, at least not if they want
to make money. But unlike other areas of business, the newspaper game has
never been about profit.

The great DVD giveaway is just the latest instalment in Fleet Street's
endless turf war.

Ask a question
"It's digital bingo," says Greenslade, referring to the period, 20 years
ago, when tabloid editors employed prize-winning bingo games to woo new
readers.

It was the Sunday papers which started giving away free CDs. The Saturdays
followed and this week, the battle has spilled over from the weekend
editions. The Sun is offering a series of BBC Comedy Greats on DVD,
including Morecambe and Wise and the Two Ronnies.

The Daily Mail meanwhile, has a series of 12 - "collect them all" - free
children's DVDs, including Superted, Rosie and Jim, and Fireman Sam.

Crucially, perhaps, these weekday offers are not "cover mounts" - ie the
DVDs do not come with the paper - and rely on readers taking a voucher to a
shop to redeem their free disc.

Offers of free DVDs are a proven sales winner, says Greenslade, but only in
the very short-term.

Free paper with your DVD?

"They create only circulation spikes," he says. "Editors hope people will
buy the paper for the DVD and become loyal readers, leading to long-term
stability."

Retailers are worried that giveaways devalue their business

In fact, such offers seem to be creating an army of "newspaper tarts" -
people who buy for the giveaway, rather than the paper itself.

"It's getting to the stage in a few years where you'll get a free newspaper
with your CD or DVD," says Greenslade.

"It's a fight to the death, a case of last man standing. But newspapers are
not about profit, they're about influence. So the owners will just plough in
more and more money."

While papers may not be profiting from such offers, they're not losing as
much as you might imagine.

The cost price of each disc could be as low as 16p-18p, says an industry
source who asked not to be named. That includes the pressing of the disc,
the cardboard wallet, artwork on the disc and the cover, and artistic
royalties. It even includes a small payment to Philips, which claims a
royalty on every DVD produced.

'Negative message'

CDs, he says, will cost marginally less.

"Knock-out 10,000 DVDs and you're looking at maybe 34p each; 100,000 at 25p
each, half a million at 23p each. So when you get into the millions, which
are what the tabloids sell, it's even less."

Last week we calculated 3m DVDs were sold in the UK, compared to 10m cover
mounts given away with papers

Gennaro Castaldo, HMV
Costs are trimmed at every corner, he says, and the discs were probably
pressed during the summer, when factories are quieter but want to keep their
presses running.

The artistic royalties for each film, meanwhile, will be signed up for
"maybe £100,000 to £125,000", while the lightweight discs are "superb" for
storage and transportation.

But not everyone is happy with the arrangement. HMV is one of several
retailers worried that such giveaways will diminish the value of their
business.

"DVDs should be aspirational but if you see them being tossed around it
sends out a negative message," says HMV spokesman Gennaro Castaldo. "It
devalues the medium in the minds of the public."

But doesn't the fact that a DVD can be made for as little as 16p suggest
customers are being ripped off in the shops?

Mr Castaldo rejects it as a "facile argument". The cost of DVDs sold in
shops reflects the "full costs of creating a film, distribution, marketing
and selling it."

"But DVD prices have been coming down a lot recently."

In the mean time, Fleet Street's long-standing enmities are helping the
canniest readers build extensive DVD libraries. Soon they'll be shouting
'full house!'

Wolfgang

I recall The Sun did something last year where they gave away "The Long Good Friday", "Mona Lisa", and "Paris, Texas". Usually they give away crap, but they were definitely worth having. What was great was that you did not even have to buy it; you just had to enter some code on play.com to claim your dvd - funnily enough they did not do that again. My mother gives me all her Dail Mail crap too like "Brief Encounter" and "French Lieutenant's Woman".

DB7

You should pay your mother a visit as I'm sure today's Daily Mail giveaway is Whistle Down the Wind.

sanndevil

How on earth did you know? I've been trying to get her to ditch that fascist rag for the last 30 years! Unfortunately, not worth the 500 mile round trip to the Lake District to pick up the disc!

Harold Pelham

There's not much I like about HMV but I do have to agree with their spokesman that free newspaper DVDs do devalue the industry and there should be, and I think will be, a declaration between the majors to put a stop to it.

I know that everyone likes to moan about the retail cost of DVDs versus the manufacturing cost but, unless you're selling Harry Potter, sales just aren't that great. If you are an independent label it is almost impossible to make an honest living. There's the master rights license, authoring, extras, design and artwork, mcps (on quantity manufactured NOT quantity sold), distribution fee, discounts (if you want HMV to sell it) and on and on and on. And of course, there's the pirates to contend with and I'm not just talking about the counterfeit rogues. Vistit any large company in England on a friday afternoon, or East end cafe come to that, and some joker, who considers themselves Robin Hood, will sell you Charlie & The Chocolate Factory (before its even released) for a fiver!!!

Well, its easy to steal, isn't it!

HP