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Why Animeigo is going DVD only
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As previously announced AnimEigo is going DVD only, Robert Woodhead of AnimEigo sent us this e-mail explaining the decision to abandon the VHS market.
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Why we are going DVD-only
Several fans (OK, several dozen...) have written asking for more
details on our decision to, in their words, "dump VHS and force us to
buy DVD players."
As this is a fairly major decision, it's only fair that we explain
our reasoning:
Most of AnimEigo's new titles are going to be special-editions, and
most of them will be subtitled-only.
Subtitled VHS sales have died in the last 6 months. Retail outlets
(the big chain stores in particular) will not buy them anymore.
Thus, our major sales outlet for subtitled VHS is direct sales to fans.
Because of packaging and mastering costs, we basically need about
500-1000 VHS unit sales in order to make it even marginally
worthwhile to do a VHS edition as well as a DVD one. NOTE that this
means sales of VHS tapes to people who WOULD NOT buy the DVD if that
was the only option.
On Macross, for example, the voting was going 10:1 in favor of people
who wanted it on DVD.
DVD has destroyed the LD market, and is making large inroads on the
VHS markets, especially in the anime genre. Anime fans (and in
particular the fans who buy AnimEigo products) are very quality
conscious.
Finally, we have to think ahead to what the market will be in 6-12
months, not what it is today. DVD penetration in the anime market is
soaring at an astonishing rate.
It was not an easy decision to make, but we feel it is one that best
serves the needs of our core customers. Bottom line, done properly,
DVD is so much better than VHS that it isn't funny. And you can bet
that AnimEigo will take the time to do it right.
best
R
--
----------------------------------------------------------------
Robert Woodhead, Alleged CEO, AnimEigo
That "alleged" part, those are his word, we didn't add them in :-)
-----------
Why we are going DVD-only
Several fans (OK, several dozen...) have written asking for more
details on our decision to, in their words, "dump VHS and force us to
buy DVD players."
As this is a fairly major decision, it's only fair that we explain
our reasoning:
Most of AnimEigo's new titles are going to be special-editions, and
most of them will be subtitled-only.
Subtitled VHS sales have died in the last 6 months. Retail outlets
(the big chain stores in particular) will not buy them anymore.
Thus, our major sales outlet for subtitled VHS is direct sales to fans.
Because of packaging and mastering costs, we basically need about
500-1000 VHS unit sales in order to make it even marginally
worthwhile to do a VHS edition as well as a DVD one. NOTE that this
means sales of VHS tapes to people who WOULD NOT buy the DVD if that
was the only option.
On Macross, for example, the voting was going 10:1 in favor of people
who wanted it on DVD.
DVD has destroyed the LD market, and is making large inroads on the
VHS markets, especially in the anime genre. Anime fans (and in
particular the fans who buy AnimEigo products) are very quality
conscious.
Finally, we have to think ahead to what the market will be in 6-12
months, not what it is today. DVD penetration in the anime market is
soaring at an astonishing rate.
It was not an easy decision to make, but we feel it is one that best
serves the needs of our core customers. Bottom line, done properly,
DVD is so much better than VHS that it isn't funny. And you can bet
that AnimEigo will take the time to do it right.
best
R
--
----------------------------------------------------------------
Robert Woodhead, Alleged CEO, AnimEigo
That "alleged" part, those are his word, we didn't add them in :-)
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