With Netflix, ShowMax, VIDI, VU and ONTAPtv.com having launched in South Africa over the past 21 months, in addition to DSTV’s BoxOffice, concerns have been raised about the future of the hard-copy movie industry.
The City Times spoke to several video stores in Benoni, though only one was able to comment at the time of publication.
“There are quite a few video stores closing their doors, but there are many influences on this,” said Eddie and Sonette Nel, co-owners of the Blockbusters store at Rynfield Terrace Shopping Centre.
“Video-on-demand services have an influence, but they are all legal.
“People have to pay for them. They are not what’s killing us.
“More than anything, it’s illegal downloads that are dangerous to the business.”
The Nels emphasised how pirated copies of movies, both in hard copy, sold on street corners and in digital form, downloaded from illegal websites, are the real killers of the movie rental industry.
“Beside all that, the economy is not very strong at the moment, which also accounts for some of the hardship we’ve experienced,” Eddie said.
“We started out in the video-renting business in 1986.
“In that year, the same thing happened when M-Net started out: people thought it would be the end of video stores in South Africa, but nothing happened.”
These Marister residents could only recall two major changes to their video store, one being their switch from an independent store to a franchise Blockbusters in 2004.
“Last year we moved from a 160sqm store to this one, which is 70sqm,” Eddie added.
Despite this, he said they hold the same number of titles now.
“Over the past five or so years, there has been a decline in rentals and sales, but that is stabilising now,” Sonette said.
“In February we actually had growth compared to the same month last year.”
When asked whether video stores have a future, the pair immediately nodded their heads, saying, “The future is in DVDs, however – Blu-Ray doesn’t seem to have caught on much”.
You may also be interested in:
Farmers’ Supply closes its doors after 104 years
OR
Interest rates and share prices
