Come on studios – get in the game

I was reading a post on Mashable the other day (http://mashable.com/2010/04/09/netflix-new-releases/) and couldn’t help thinking that the Hollywood film studios are their own worst enemies.  Netflix has recently signed deals with Twentieth Century Fox, Universal, and Warner Bros to delay new release rentals by 28 days.  As Mashable rightly points out, this is the studio’s attempts to force the consumer’s hand into paying substantially more for the earlier release.  Now as an early adopter myself I understand that if you want something sooner rather than later you often need to pay more for it.  However, where this relates to digitally distributed content which can be easily pirated the studios might be smarter to allow full access (ie rental and purchase) from day one.  Why – whilst they potentially miss the opportunity for higher revenues from early adopters/consumers/fans they’ll offset that loss of revenue from the tranche of society that would probably pay a nominal rental fee but would rather ‘get a copy from their mate’ than pay the high purchase price.  Those that wish to buy the DVD will (for keepsakes purposes) however it will not prevent those wishing to enjoy the content from contributing to the studio’s revenue line.