Page 1 of EU to probe DVD Pricing (BBC)

For everybody fed up of high cost of Region 2 DVDs (and regional coding) check this out...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/business/newsid_1382000/1382152.stm

I think Australian government is also looking into Region coding as well.

Being part of Europe does have its advantages after all then ?!

Thanks for the pointer, James, it`s good to see that at least this issue has been noted.

However, I won`t hold my breath for a few years yet - these investigations, and I`m thinking specifically of the CD price issue - seem to take forever to sort out - HMV/Virgin are still selling back catalogue CDs for near enough £14-15, and yet the issue has been rolling on for what seems like an eternity.

The great thing about visiting these forums is that visitors are made aware of cunning tricks to circumvent UK DVD pricing policy - how many of us are now using Australian retailers, for example ?

Fact of the matter is that the great majority of Mr & Mrs Public will happily pay the inflated prices in the UK because, put simply, they don`t know any better. And the High St shops that do sell to these people know it full well.

The more of us who spread the word about sites like Reviewer the better - eventually the retailers will get the message whilst the punters stream online to order stuff from overseas.

So, how`s it feel to be an ambassador for cheap DVD prices - spread the word, folks, do it for the rest of rip off Britain !

clayts,

What are the best Aussie sites to get dvd`s?

Thanks,

Nas..

www.ezydvd.com.au

www.dvdcrave.com

This matter even got featured on `Working Lunch` today on BBC2, which is great.

I`m sure that was a Wharfey 750 on Adrian`s desk ! Anyway, they talked about the region system, and the fact that people could hack their players, although the very short interview with Mark Wright from What DVD magazine gave the impression that remote control hacking could invalidate the warranty, especially as some players (and I`m thinking specifically of the Philips players that were originally limited to 25 hacks only) could lock up.

They also mentioned that the figure of DVD player owners had gone up from 38000 in 1999 to 1.8 million by March 2001, and that the average price paid was £222, although they mentioned some players could be had for less than £200.

A well-researched piece, but one that definitely could fill a half hour programme, I think, with more contributions from Hollywood and the manufacturers - could make for very interesting viewing indeed.

I wonder whether BBC2 would be interested (as part of their open access programming) - whaddya reckon ?

I was recently involved (only slightly) in a case where a dog club in the USA was sueing another dog club because they were not allowed to show their dogs at that clubs shows because of certain rules.

WTF has that got to do with selling DVD`s you ask??

Well it appears that the USA has a statute called "The Solomon Law", (I think), which is designed to prevent "restrictive trade practices", such as big suppliers refusing to give smaller business`s an equal chance in trade, by perhaps giving bigger business`s bigger discount, or refusing to supply goods to them etc.

The dog club in question argued that by not being allowed to show their dogs at the other clubs shows, the value of their dogs was being affected. (Yeah I think its stupid too, but thats Americans for you.)

The point is, that the Court in America has acknowledged that the dog club have a case, and the issue is going to be heard in Court.

If not allowing someone to show their dog is accepted as a "Restraint of Trade", then what would they call not supplying the same DVD, with the same contents, at the same time, for the same price to everyone?

Hope I haven`t left anyone behind. :-) :-)

Normann

Norman - I`ll contact the BBC and write the script, you do the research - could be a good team !

BBC2 here we come...

Interesting piece there, Norm. Let`s hope that, if it does become case law (which it inevitably will, in the wake of the usual appeals) it could be applied across the board.