Once the techical, economic and cultural phenomenon of the early 2000s, the DVD now seems to running out of stream. Yet, now more than ever, it plays an essential role in the creation of a living relationship to cinema. While recent releases demonstrate the wealth of offerings, if an appropriate strategy is set in place, the DVD still has some bright days ahead of it.

Invented in the mid 90s, homologated in 1995, the DVD took three years to impose itslef in the United States, and an additional year to conquer Europe. In 2000, the issue is understood as follows: it will be the dominant film access aid. The DVD seemed to impose itself against VHS (pioneer of the possibility of owning or renting movies to watch them at home, but the weight and fragility of which now seem pitiful) and also against other screening modes which were, at the time, the movie house, Hertzian television and the first cable or satellite televisions – the transfer to the Internet being at the time a distant possibility. Reliable, durable, solid, light, affordable (..), it offers multiple possibilities for passionate film buffs as wel as for mass family use (..).

In 2005, however, the DVD, after being the consumer product that registered the fastest distribution in the history of the trade, sees that its vertiginous ascent is beginning to stagnate. (..) Does that mean that after having been the aid of the future, the DVD is now condemned? That is far from certain.

Indeed, if the tidal waves that swept big stores, where the hottest selling titles would go by the million, now belongs to the past, the DVD continues, and in all likelyhood, will continue to represent an important mode of encounter between films and viewers. It could very well impose itself as a particularly appopriate mode for establishing the most ambitious relationships with cinema, whether it s for the enjoyment of film buffs, in educational settings or for research. Such a new status is far from given, as illustrated by the fact that, for the time being, the most demanding publishers, whose who offer the most elaborate editorial content, are also suffering sales losses. (..)

What is this overall decline owed to? Nowadays, the only legal alternative offer that benefits from a strong mass audience attraction is… the movie house. Contrary to what was being predicted in the 90s, far from crumbling, attendance has stabilized, then increased in the 2000s in every developed country, thanks, notably, to multiplexes (..).

“Classical” television is obviously not competing with the DVD, cinema having ceased to be an appeal product, while the networks themselves are having trouble maintaining their domination as the main tool for mass leisure. Cable themes are on the rise, but are far from being able to play a significant role on the statistical scale. The same goes, for the time being, for what is considered to be the DVD’s main potential competitor, VOD. The number of films available on the Internet is rising sharply, and while their sales for 2008 should double for the second year in a row, the economical volumes remain incomparable (30 million Euros for VOD, 1,4 billion for DVDs). The vast majority (85%) of film viewings via the Internet were enabled by the television set in the context of “triple play offers,” and not by the computer. It is also significant that the usage is clearly contrasted: the rental of video aids has practically disappeared, sales accounting for 98% of the market, whereas the opposite phenomenon characterizes online access, where viewings of temporary downloads also represent 98% of that market. The DVD is used to own a dilm (or to gift it), internet to watch it once or twice.

In fact, DVD’s main known competitor is now piracy. According to estimates, in France, there are 450 000 illegal film downloads a day. All professional sectors complain about this, but video is one of its most direct victims. (..) But, more generally speaking, American blocbusters are the pirates’ main targets; the drop is their sales is the most significant for the industry as a whole. Do not repeat it to anyone or we will get into trouble, but piracy is in fact a weapon of cultural exception: it targets mainly big Hollywood machineries.

If everyone continues to bank on a massive increase of (legal) Internet offerings, no one knows hoe sizeable it will be, and how it will impact all relationships between films and viewers. On the DVD side, the manufacturers’ sole response rests in the creation of an improved norm, the Blu-Ray (which has definitely eliminated its competitor HD-DVD, Toshiba, the latter’s main promoter, having thrown in the towel last February), while waiting for its announced successor, HDV (Holographic Versatile Disc). If it has to do each time around with a significanr increase in storage capacity, the other usages of these improvements, especially interactivity, don’t seem to inspire many. The upcoming months will let us know if the quantitative improvement offered by Blu-Ray format will suffice to motivate the necessary double purchase – the player and the new DVDs – by a large number of viewers.

However, the DVD edition does remain a necessity with a possibly bright future – at least as far as high quality offers are concerned. This future will entail mutations that will include the largest possible offerings of film heritage, a high quality editorial work for reference films and the invention of micro domains adapted to the screening of particularly demanding films. Created during this ending phase, the CNC’s video support system obviously needs to be transformed to back up these new challanges.

It seems plausible that such an evolution would help the sector take more advantage of support systems, a change which other film professionals will only accept in exchange for more transparency, and if possible, more synergie between the world of video and cinema’s “classical” professions. Publishers are campaigning to shorten the waiting span for DVD releases, at the risk of harming the lives of films in the theatre. Cinema side, the legal claimants complain of the lack of transparency in accounting, while filmmakers and directors of photography are often unhappy with the DVD version of their films, in other words, relationships are indeed not at their best. If, after the slightly wild “conquest of the West” of the last twenty years, the new situation could create a closer proximity between the worlds of cinema and of video, and if the DVD became the spearhead of public action in the field of cinema, the current crisis will not have been without its advantages.

Jean-Michel Frodon

*Full text can be found: Cahiers du cinéma, 11′08, 8.- 11. p.

Prepared by: Zane Krumina