Video shift

Aaron Clemens

Monday, July 10, 2000 | 11:11 a.m.

Like most mothers, Las Vegan Kerri Mann is driven to get the best for her children. When she couldn't find developmental videos to her liking, she and her husband, Steven, wrote and produced their own.

In the four years since founding Babyscapes Inc., they have won national awards for the videos that combine classical music with computer animation to stimulate infant intellect.

The videos are distributed nationally through Toys R Us and Babies R Us, as well as in eight local stores, but the Las Vegas couple is ready to go worldwide. They spent the weekend at the 19th annual Video Software Dealers Association convention at the Sands Expo and Convention Center trying to find an international distributor.

"It's nice to be able to meet the actual people in the industry," Kerri Mann said.

The value of attending the trade show in their hometown was evident. They met a vice president and a president of distributing companies, opportunities they would not have had by just calling their offices, Steven Mann said.

They weren't the only Las Vegans taking advantage of the trade show, which 10,000 people -- some from as far away as Israel and Hong Kong -- attended.

Video producer Max Cerchi said he had made several contacts with people interested in his new "Monkey for President" animated video. The native Italian moved to Las Vegas after spending time in Los Angeles and New York. Although his focus is locally produced horror films, he thought it was appropriate to release a "Monkey for President" video to coincide with the upcoming election.

Longtime attendees and retailers noticed a shift away from previously extravagant displays, promotional giveaways and celebrity appearances by the major studios.

"I've seen it digress," said Lance Schwulst, director of sales for Media Blasters. "It used to be a retailers' show and now it's an insiders' show, mainly business to business."

This evolution has come as independent video retailers are bought out by large national chains, which share revenue with the major studios, according to several show attendees. As a result, independent retailers, who dominate this show in numbers if not revenue, have less clout in the industry.

"The business has changed, and the independent retailers not only are the low man on the totem pole in sell-through, but they no longer dominate in rental either," wrote Video Store Magazine editor-in-chief Thomas Arnold in the most recent issue.

Major studios still think independent retailers are important, Paramount Home Video's vice president of publicity Martin Blythin said, despite the studios' weak presence at this trade show. They prefer to use the Internet to reach every retailer, rather than put resources into the convention, he said.

The retailers -- independent and big chains alike -- hope to make their clout felt by the studios at this convention, but on another issue: video on demand.

As mergers occur that combine studios and cable pay-per-view into the same company, video retailers fear studios will end the 60-day delay between the release of a title on video and its availability on pay-per-view.

Retailers plan to wear red baseball caps during today's major studio roundtable in protest.

"It will be five to 10 years before video on demand takes over," Blythin said. DVD and video sales and rentals are going strong and will continue as DVD spreads to more households, he predicted.

Another possible threat to retailers is automated video and DVD vending machines. The Videomat machines already have made inroads in Israel and dozens of locations in Europe, company official Benny Ben Zvi said.

The machines feature a computer display that allows a customer to browse hundreds of video or DVD titles, then select and pay via credit card just like at a gas pump. Customers can check the availability of certain titles and get directions to the machines over the Internet. Returning a video is as easy as sliding it into a slot.

Bill Barber, president of DVD Play, already has DVD vending machines on the campuses of the University of Southern California and UCLA. As the numbers of DVD owners grow from their current 14 million, such machines may be a cheaper option, at only $10,000, to building million-dollar chain stores, he said.

Video stores will survive because people like to shop, said Danny Kelly, director of sales for Rentrack. Retail stores allow independent films to get the same exposure on the shelf as blockbusters, and some people just don't want to change their habits.

"People said home shopping would get rid of regular stores," he said.