DALLAS -- New Line Home Video, Los Angeles, is offering rental titles through the supermarket-oriented shared transaction fee program of SuperComm here on a test basis, a New Line executive confirmed.
Retailers had told SN the first New Line title with SuperComm would be "Faithful," starring Cher, which streeted Aug. 27.
"We are testing a few of our rental titles with SuperComm now," said Kevin Kasha, senior vice president of sales and distribution at New Line. "It is being done on a title-by-title basis and we are doing it for educational purposes, to see if it is something that makes sense."
The addition of any major studio to a shared transaction fee program is big news in the video trade, observers noted. These companies have had a difficult time convincing studios to provide product.
"The addition of New Line will probably be a good idea," said a video buyer at a Midwestern chain, who did not wish to be identified.
Besides a number of B-movie suppliers, SuperComm only offers product from Disney's video arm, Buena Vista Home Video, Burbank, Calif. SuperComm is a Disney subsidiary. Prior to late 1994, when Disney bought SuperComm, SuperComm also carried product from New Line and MCA/Universal Home Video, Universal City, Calif. Some industry watchers have speculated that the other studios have stayed away from SuperComm because of the Disney connection and therefore see the New Line move as a significant advance for the share-revenue company.
Meanwhile, Rentrak Corp., Portland, Ore., has rental titles from FoxVideo, Beverly Hills, Calif. and MCA/Universal, as well as Buena Vista. However, Rentrak can only distribute the Buena Vista titles to the specialty trade.
With shared transaction fee programs, retailers pay a fee of $10 or less to acquire a tape and then share revenues with the supplier. Retailers pay about $60 to $70 for a new release tape they would own. Most retailers take advantage of this pricing structure to bring in much greater depth of copy on the hits and more breadth on B titles. Transactions are tracked electronically.
Among the questions New Line wanted to answer through the SuperComm test were, "Can supermarkets make money with video? Will they support it going forward?" said Kasha.
"SuperComm had spoken to us and said that there were a number of supermarket chains that may not be interested in video as an ongoing concern. They feel that the SuperComm system will make it profitable for these retailers," he said.
Clifford Feiock, video coordinator at Minneapolis-based Nash Finch Co., viewed the addition of New Line as a step in the right direction for SuperComm.
"This is a very positive move. One of the problems with the previous SuperComm program is that they just didn't have a broad enough product mix. It is certainly a plus to get another studio lined up," he said.
Springdale, Ark.-based Harps Food Stores tested both the SuperComm and Rentrak systems before opting for Rentrak, in part because the company is offering more titles, said Randy Weddington, video specialist.
"Rentrak has more studios than SuperComm," he said, but added that Rentrak's revenue sharing plan is more complicated than SuperComm's and its lease period is longer.
"The addition of more studios would certainly help SuperComm to gain a bigger foothold in supermarkets. That is the main part of the business," Weddington said.
New Line is not distributing titles through Rentrak, the only other shared transaction fee company. Rentrak is larger than SuperComm, but the vast majority of its customers are specialty stores. SuperComm is dedicated to the supermarket and drugstore classes of trade.
"SuperComm is the only revenue sharing service we are testing with at this time," said Kasha. He did not make a statement on Rentrak.
