While some supermarket retailers are cutting back on rental, many that are dedicated to the category are enthusiastically pursuing new opportunities. Among these are the shared-revenue and copy-depth programs, but they also include DVD, video games, audio books and cross promotions with home-meal replacement programs.
ut a quarter, 26.9%, said they plan to test or carry DVD in 1998 and the same number said they won't handle it until hardware penetration reaches mass-market levels.
Asked about the potential in supermarkets for the limited-play Divx variant of DVD, 22.1% said they were unfamiliar with it, 40.2% said they were undecided, 31.2% said it had no potential, while 6.5% said Divx could become a viable supermarket product. The nonreturnable Divx discs would be sold for less than $5, and consumers would have 48 hours to watch the movie. Additional time would be purchased by a modem hook-up. Divx-equipped players will cost about $100 more than standard DVD players.
Tie-ins with home-meal replacement programs -- offering "movie and a meal to go" promotions -- have strong appeal to the video executives responding to SN's survey. Of the respondents, 19.7% said they have tried such cross promotions with moderate success, 21.1% said they plan to try them in 1998, 25.4% are actively considering them, while 31% said they have no interest in trying HMR tie-ins with video.
Rental is the preferred category for such promotions, said 73.3%. Asked what HMR category they tried it with, 64.3% said pizza, 28.6% said prepared meals and 21.4% said "other deli." Also drawing mentions were frozens, outside vendors leasing space in the store and a Pepsi tie-in.