Disney CEO Bob Iger Says DVD Sales Are Sobering, Still Won’t Promote Disney Movies Online

Apparently, even if you are one of the biggest names in entertainment, the ever changing way that people view their media is not only effecting your sales, but is now becoming something that your brand focuses on.

During Disney’s fourth quarter financial results call on Thursday, CEO Bob Iger said that while DVD sales may in fact be down, it’s not due to the fledgling economy, but rather due to the way that the public consumes their entertainment:

‘On secular versus cyclical and the overall question about DVD trends, I’ve been pretty vocal about that business, suggesting that while many believe that we are seeing cyclical trends that were due to the downturn, that we thought that they were secular trends that were also impacting the business due largely to just more competition for people’s time more than anything else.’

Apparently not even Toy Story 3, one of the highest grossing films of all time, won’t be doing the company any favors when its DVD numbers start really rolling in:

‘If ever there’s a title that would do well it would be  Toy Story 3, particularly in the sell-through side because it’s a title that just makes a lot of sense for people who are going to let their kids watch it multiple times to own versus rent, for instance. It will do quite well. I am not going to make predictions as to what it will do, but if you were to look at the numbers for  Toy Story 3, which will be extremely strong, versus what films we did just three, four, five years ago, you’d be sobered by those numbers.’

Now, one thing that the company has done to help save the financial side of their business, and to shockingly little hype, is starting a new online movie service.

According to the LA Times, Walt Disney Co. has launched Disney Movies online, which allows users to buy or rent digital versions of Disney or Pixar releases.   The site debuted back in May, but with no links on the Disney.com website, the company has gone only so far as to include the Web address on a sleeve within their DVD/Blu-ray releases.

Personally, while I personally wouldn’t use their web service, at least not unless it were a subscription based service, which I think would prove to be the best business model for this service particularly with the ever growing popularity of things like set-top boxes or other Web-enabled TV devices, I’m shocked that they aren’t promoting this site more.   They know that the public is watching their media in different ways other than using physical media, so why not promote the hell out of this thing?   This, along with their service known as KeyChest, would be a real game changer for those looking to get rid of, or lower the amount of, physical media that they have.

What do you think?

Source: NewTeeVee / LA Times