In a bid to preserve shelf space and fight slowing DVD sales, major U.S. retailers including Wal-Mart have held talks with Hollywood's studios to develop kiosks where consumers can copy movies and TV shows onto DVDs and devices, industry executives said.
Installing video-burning kiosks in retail stores would help counter the slowing growth in the $24 billion home DVD market, executives said.
Retailers have used discounted DVDs to lure customers to stores and sell them other goods. But increasingly, Hollywood's studios are starting to offer digital downloads of films, TV shows and videos to cell phones, PCs and laptop computers.
Retailers are concerned that digital downloads might spell an end to the sale of DVDs, and see the download-to-burn kiosks as a way to keep them in the DVD business.
"There have been discussions with all the major retailers who have an interest in kiosks because they would let them grow their product offerings without using a lot of shelf space," said Jim Wuthrich, senior vice president, digital distribution for Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group.
"Burning DVDs in stores could happen in 2007," he said, but noted various licensing and technology hurdles still remained. Warner Bros. is the studio owned by Time Warner.
Retailers like Wal-Mart, Target and Best Buy represented 50 percent of all sell-through retail DVD sales in 2004, according to the Video Software Dealers Association (VSDA).
A spokeswoman for Wal-Mart confirmed that the world's largest retailer was looking into kiosks, but said no formal announcements or decisions were expected soon.
