Time Warner Inc. is taking a new tack against China's movie pirates, aiming to beat the bootleggers to the market.

The world's largest media company is considering selling movies on DVD in China at the same time they screen in U.S. cinemas to spur sales in the world's fastest-growing major economy.

Time Warner is betting quicker releases and prices as low as 15 yuan ($1.89) for movies such as "The Aviator'' will lure Chinese consumers away from illegal copies. The company is trying to recoup some of the $1.2 billion the Motion Picture Association estimates the world's six biggest studios, including Time Warner and Walt Disney Co., lose in Asia a year because of pirated DVDs.

This is the right way to go, because just complaining to the authorities about piracy doesn't work.

Copies of the latest Hollywood films sell openly in Beijing and Shanghai for as little as 8 yuan apiece, even after the government pledged repeatedly to clamp down on piracy. They are available within days of a movie's U.S. cinema release.

Time Warner already encodes movie discs sold in China so they cannot be watched on DVD players bought outside the country.

The studios have advantages in the quality of their DVDs, but they need faster releases to give Chinese consumers an incentive to buy legitimate DVDs. Piracy isn't going away anytime soon.

Almost all Warner movies released on DVD in China in the past 18 months were sold in the Asian nation before anywhere else in the world.

Sales of legitimate Warner discs in China have had a "huge improvement'' with "very high growth rates'' since November 2004.

Warner is expanding its sales network in China, offering discs through 7-Eleven convenience stores and outlets of Gome Electrical Appliances Holdings Ltd., China's biggest electronics retailer. Carrefour SA, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and the Xinhua Book Store chain already sell the company's DVDs in China.

Warner is also pursuing pirate DVD sellers. The Motion Picture Association, which also represents Disney, Sony Corp., General Electric Co., Viacom Inc. and News Corp., filed lawsuits against two Beijing companies in August and this month for selling pirated discs.

At stake for Warner Bros. is a bigger share of an entertainment industry growing at more than 18 percent annually. Spending on movies in China, including box office receipts and DVD sales, may rise to $2.04 billion in 2010 from $1.36 billion last year.

Source:佚名