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PIRATED: Who's gonna pay for a legit DVD when pirated copies are so freely available at a ridiculously low cost?

The industry has reported an approximate 10% revenue knock.

Some say it's due to the economic meltdown.

Nu Metro entertainment managing director Fay Amaral disagrees.

She agrees that people aren't buying as many DVDs as before and haven't gone out to see as many movies as in previous years.

But she maintains the slump is not due to the economic meltdown but because of film content.

She says: "If the film content is good then people come even during the recession.

"This is true the world over."

Amaral says cinemas across the world have had good and bad days.

"It's a seasonal business and it's content driven.

"This market is at the mercy of film producers, in terms of the quality of films.

"People don't just pay money for the sake of seeing a movie; they pay for quality. So, it's a particular entertainment choice."

She says cinemas will be around for a long time.

"Lots of other platforms are coming in, such as VOD, PC, Film downloads, TV and DVDs - but the cinema and film business won't die any time soon," she says.

As for DVDs, the business of home entertainment is also on the decline.

Almaral says this is mainly driven by options and the opportunity to watch a move via your MNET HD Decoder at home.

She says a certain percentage of the market is taken by this because it is easy to use, it is convenient and well priced.

So quite a few people are migrating from cinemas to one or more of these options.

"The industry is still exposed to a lot of piracy, but South Africa doesn't have as much digital piracy as some other countries."

She also says there is still a lot of value in DVDs and semi-films - and kid's films are still doing well in this "family centred" country.

"But there are certain categories of change and decline within home entertainment.

"Some elements of this market are still strong. People still love collecting every episode of their favourite TV series."

But this might be diluted over time with catch-up TV. If you miss an episode it's easy these days to catch up with PVR.

As for TV, Almara says there is a good TV market in the country and the VOD launch by MNET is being well received.

"It's a good offer for those in that market and its easy to use.

"Why would one go rent out a movie when one can sit on his or her couch at home, press a button and get a movie?"

And as time moves on more user-friendly technology will be developed.

Almara says there is a negative side to Internet movie downloads.

"One might be able to download a movie for $10 or whatever the cost might be from an international site, but by the time you work out how much it has cost you to do the data download, it will have cost you a lot more than what you'd have paid if you'd bought a DVD locally," she concludes.

• aprila@sundayworld.co.za