Lower-budget 3-D Releases on the Way ... Delivering Critics' Screeners Digitally

Two pieces worth a look from the weekly edition of Variety:

- "Lower-budget titles try on 3-D" focuses on a $4 million budget British film, 'The Mortician,' and a $7 million US film, 'Dark Country,' being released in digital 3-D.

- "Networks to shift screeners online", about delivering critics' screeners of new TV shows over the Internet, rather than on DVDs. From Josef Adalian's piece:

[Newark Star-Ledger TV critic Alan Sepinwall says] "DVD screeners occasionally give picture problems, but they're vastly more consistent and reliable than any form of streaming video I've yet encountered."

Perhaps, but the networks are convinced online screening is the way to go.

It can cost a network in the ballpark of $1 million per year to send out a full assortment of DVD screeners. In contrast, once startup costs are amortized, digitizing shows and posting them online costs just a fraction of that amount.

"We're talking hundreds of thousands of dollars we can save," says Sharon Williams, the ABC senior veepee who's helped lead the Alphabet's digitial screener initiative.