Video Rental Holdouts Riding Last Wave

THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR l THE SPEC.COM SATURDAY, MAY 5, 2012 B1 RICK HUGHES, BUSINESS EDITOR [email protected] TRAVEL 905-526-3420 TITANIC’S LAST LANDFALL Irish museum walks vistors through final BUSINESS hours of the Titanic B4 Video rental holdouts riding last wave Parkway with husband Vinod, Industry in says sales and rentals of Indian and Pakistani movies and music fast-forward remain strong. “People still come to us because decline we have new movies and classics.” She said customers come from MEREDITH MACLEOD Buffalo, Niagara and Cambridge The Hamilton Spectator for everything from yoga videos and Bollywood movies to prayer Scouring the racks at a video store videos and documentaries of his- is poised to slip into the annals of torical figures. nostalgia alongside slipping a She said there may come a time quarter into a pay phone, combing when the Internet impacts the 10- through albums in a record shop year-old store, but it’s not happen- and lining up for concert tickets at ing yet. “For the most part, we are a box office. good.” Where once video stores dotted Robert Hamilton, chair of Mc- plazas around the city, a range of Master’s communications studies rent-from-the-couch options such and multimedia department, says as Netflix, iTunes and video-on- most households are still transi- demand services has changed the tioning from physical media to way people watch movies. No digital media, but that most people more piling into the car to peruse now find digital more practical. the racks or dashing out at 10:30 at “You don’t have to leave home, night to avoid late fees. No more CATHIE COWARD, THE HAMILTON SPECTATOR it’s relatively inexpensive, it’s HD scratched disks or empty new re- Mo Dirani, owner of Queen Street video store Select Video, is one of only a few remaining movie rental stores. quality and there are no late fees.” lease shelves. It’s also cheaper to produce and That’s not to mention the range to, in order: pay-per-view movies, boom time for the business.” racks, read the covers, get recom- doesn’t require physical space to of illegal downloading choices, the trend toward buying DVDs at According to U.S. figures, there mendations from staff or pick up store. As well, many streaming or from black market DVDs selling relatively low cost and now digital were more than 70,000 stores of- some chocolate or a pizza with a downloading sites allow for for $4 to websites offering movies content. fering movie rentals in 1989, the movie on their way home. Some watching on multiple devices, in- that are still in theatres. But there are plenty of people peak year of rental popularity. (Big don’t want the hassle of down- cluding smartphones, which is an So, add it all up and aside from who think there is still a rental was the top rental that year.) loading new releases, which can increasingly important selling some variety stores with a few market, including a host of players Last year, that number was take several hours depending on point, he says. movies tucked in the back and a stampeding into the video kiosk 5,900. your Internet connection, or wor- But Hamilton is wistfully handful of shops geared to ethnic market over the still-smoking re- Jim Gormley has been in the ry about going over their monthly nostalgic. communities or adult fare, there mains of the video chains. movie rental business for 25 years data limit with streaming. “We’re in a weird paradigm are precious few mainstream vid- Mo Dirani, owner of Select Vid- and applauds those finding a way He says his collection of new re- shift. You don’t get a thing any- eo stores left in Hamilton. eo at Queen and Main in Hamil- to survive. He founded Jumbo leases, foreign and independent more (when you download). There were 31 listed in the phone ton, sees the writing on the wall Video in 1987 with a store in films, B titles and TV series at- There’s no cover art to look at. It book 10 years ago (when Ocean’s for movie stores but says their Guelph. The chain was headquar- tracts a lot of customers, along used to be fun to go to the video Eleven was the most-rented flick time isn’t quite up yet. tered in Burlington and grew to with his hours — open 365 days a store. Blockbuster made it look and 80 per cent of rentals were on “This business has a very about 100 stores at its peak, in- year and 16 hours a day. like a marquee at the front and you VHS.) That includes multiple lo- cloudy future. I don’t know what cluding five in Hamilton. “I’m not worried about what’s got to look around. Downloading cations of the now-defunct Block- will happen in five years but I will Gormley sold his stake to a Que- next. I think it will take a few years really impersonalizes it.” buster and Rogers Video. It also ride the wave as long as I can.” bec company in 2004, and only six before there is a big impact.” includes two listings for the Bur- His shop is still busy on a week- Jumbo Videos remain in the prov- Rajni Chopra, co-owner of Cho- [email protected] lington-based Jumbo Video (re- end night, with young couples ince. “The industry has done a pra Video just off Centennial 905-526-3408 | @meredithmacleod member the elephant and the free bickering over choosing a chick complete about-face from when I popcorn in the store?). flick or an action blockbuster. got into it,” says the Ancaster resi- It’s estimated the U.S. movie and There are families in the kids sec- dent. “When I first opened, it was game rental industry shrank 35.7 tion and plenty of people looking all independent stores. Then the per cent between 2000 and 2010. over the shelves of the latest HBO big chains came along and opened The numbers are worse in Cana- series as the stomach-grumbling larger stores with more product. da. According to Statistics Cana- smells from the sub shop next Now they’re gone and the inde- da, Canadians spent $1 billion on door linger in the air. pendents remain.” rentals in 1998. By 2009, the last The business dates back almost Dirani says Blockbuster closing year for which figures are avail- 30 years, starting out as National has definitely helped Select Video. able, that had fallen to $620 mil- Video farther west on Main. His “It’s rejuvenated the business … lion, a drop of almost 39 per cent. brother bought it about 11 years People didn’t know we existed un- But if you’re thinking renting a ago and Dirani, 31, has owned it for til after they closed. Once Block- disk is as dead as that 25-cent tape- five years. Dirani and his two buster closed, people started protection fee in case your VCR ate brothers also once owned a chain looking for another store to rent.” the $80 movie, hit the pause but- of stores called the Movie Shack, A few customers don’t have ca- ton. Movie rentals are still a bil- which had eight locations in Ham- ble or Internet, but for most, it’s lion-dollar industry in Canada. ilton, Brampton and Guelph. just how they choose to watch, he People have predicted the end of “It was in the VHS days when says. CANADIAN PRESS FILE PHOTO rentals for about 20 years, thanks there was no Internet. It was the Some people like to hunt the This video store scene is poised to slip into the pages of history. Gormley says Planet DVD has a 10,000 to 15,000 transactions a week. From stores to kiosks machine that holds 1,400 DVDs, “It’s the convenience factor. People The video numbers n Rogers Video revenue fell 43 per Jim Gormley has been hearing for 25 Blu-ray disks and video games can save an extra stop and stop and cent to $82 million in 2011 before the years that the video rental business (Redbox kiosks hold 250) and can be rent a movie for an affordable price.” company pulled the plug on 460 was dead. He still doesn’t believe it. placed indoors or outdoors. The plan Kolliniatis says there is much locations across Canada. In fact, he sees a future in the video is to put them in grocery stores, “untouched ground” in Canada and n According to IHS Inc., 2012 will kiosk business and is a partner in variety stores and gas bars, especially that Blockbuster Canada was doing mark the first year the number of TV Planet DVD, a new franchise concentrating on markets where OK until it was dragged down by its shows and movies legally streamed company in the GTA with machines there were Rogers or Blockbuster American parent. That proves there and downloaded will surpass physical loaded with movies and games to locations. is a viable, albeit smaller, market for discs. rent for $1 to $3 a day. One day, the machines might not disk rentals, he says. Some people n More than 1.3 million Canadian Alot of people still want to slide a spit out disks but they are so aren’t tech savvy, don’t have households or 10 per cent of the disk into a player, he says, and a lot FILE PHOTO, TORSTAR NEWS sophisticated that they could high-speed Internet or don’t want to population subscribe to Netflix, of people want to franchise a kiosk.

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