Why won't Amazon UK sell me The Lion King?

[Carpie]

When I search for the Lion King on Amazon I get this message:

"We're sorry but The Lion King is back in Walt Disney's vault, so it's not available directly from Amazon.co.uk at the moment. Sign up now and we'll let you know when it becomes available again."

Some sort of legal dispute between them and Disney? Play.com have it.

[wiffmaster]

Explained here. Not really anything to do with Amazon, more Disney's marketing strategy.

[deevlash]

wierd, I didn't know they did that.

[Oakey]

"Back in the vault"?

Like it's the only copy in existence and every now and then they let it out for an airing.

Seriously, this is what piracy is for. If they won't sell you it, source it yourself.

[Carpie]

Odd strategy. Trying to add scarcity value to their product I suppose.

Regarding piracy, yes, they've shot themselves in the foot, at least in this instance.

[Curry Burns]

This seems to be brand new -

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Lion-King-Platinum-Edition-D...

[Sonic]

That's surprising, i'd have thought you could always go and buy anything from their extensive collection whenever you wanted!

[pokethepope]

What a retarded strategy, how can it be adding scarcity. If a consumer wants it, they will buy off eBay, a website that still has it or download it.

[zac510]

I guess it pushes people towards the ones in production which may be less popular, reasoning that people will come back to buy the favourites they want eventually.

Or they sync the DVD marketing with theatre runs?

[Deva Link]

pokethepope said:

What a retarded strategy, how can it be adding scarcity. If a consumer wants it, they will buy off eBay, a website that still has it or download it.

I guess Disney have absolutely no idea what they're doing?

[freecar]

Deva Link said:

pokethepope said:

What a retarded strategy, how can it be adding scarcity. If a consumer wants it, they will buy off eBay, a website that still has it or download it.

I guess Disney have absolutely no idea what they're doing?

Agreed, I did a quick search for disney torrents and there are loads of them. I would have thought that if they could restrict illegal downloads that it would make the DVD's and stuff sell like gangbusters while they have them.

Were it not for the availability of illegal copies this would have been a move of genius!

[john_p]

Deva Link said:

pokethepope said:

What a retarded strategy, how can it be adding scarcity. If a consumer wants it, they will buy off eBay, a website that still has it or download it.

I guess Disney have absolutely no idea what they're doing?

Yes, they only turn over $38bn a year. They are idiots.

Edited by john_p on Tuesday 11th January 14:23

[freecar]

john_p said:

Deva Link said:

pokethepope said:

What a retarded strategy, how can it be adding scarcity. If a consumer wants it, they will buy off eBay, a website that still has it or download it.

I guess Disney have absolutely no idea what they're doing?

Yes, they only turn over $38bn a year. They are idiots.

Edited by john_p on Tuesday 11th January 14:23

And how do you know they wouldn't turn over more if their DVDs were in stock all year round?

[Deva Link]

freecar said:

john_p said:

Deva Link said:

pokethepope said:

What a retarded strategy, how can it be adding scarcity. If a consumer wants it, they will buy off eBay, a website that still has it or download it.

I guess Disney have absolutely no idea what they're doing?

Yes, they only turn over $38bn a year. They are idiots.

Edited by john_p on Tuesday 11th January 14:23

And how do you know they wouldn't turn over more if their DVDs were in stock all year round?

They've probably got a thousand management graduates backed by farms of super-computers figuring out the optimium way to go to market.

[wiffmaster]

freecar said:

And how do you know they wouldn't turn over more if their DVDs were in stock all year round?

I'm guessing that maybe they considered that, did some calculations, and came to the conclusion that their current strategy maximised revenue. But...I doubt they'll be able to keep up the strategy indefinitely. A great idea a few years back when illegal downloads weren't half as popular as they are now. But with the advent of unlimited high speed broadband and the fact that it's easier than ever to download high quality illegal copies, I imagine that they might revise that policy in the near future. If you can't buy a legal copy easily and can download a full quality illegal rip in under an hour, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out they must be losing millions in turnover.

[OllieC]

Deva Link said:

freecar said:

john_p said:

Deva Link said:

pokethepope said:

What a retarded strategy, how can it be adding scarcity. If a consumer wants it, they will buy off eBay, a website that still has it or download it.

I guess Disney have absolutely no idea what they're doing?

Yes, they only turn over $38bn a year. They are idiots.

Edited by john_p on Tuesday 11th January 14:23

And how do you know they wouldn't turn over more if their DVDs were in stock all year round?

They've probably got a thousand management graduates backed by farms of super-computers figuring out the optimium way to go to market.

Disney computer says 42

[pokethepope]

john_p said:

Deva Link said:

pokethepope said:

What a retarded strategy, how can it be adding scarcity. If a consumer wants it, they will buy off eBay, a website that still has it or download it.

I guess Disney have absolutely no idea what they're doing?

Yes, they only turn over $38bn a year. They are idiots.

Edited by john_p on Tuesday 11th January 14:23

They obviously now what they are doing. Wikipedia claims its "to allow Disney films to be fresh for new generations of young children." But some of the titles are not just restricted for a year or two, but nearer 10 years.

[freecar]

Deva Link said:

freecar said:

john_p said:

Deva Link said:

pokethepope said:

What a retarded strategy, how can it be adding scarcity. If a consumer wants it, they will buy off eBay, a website that still has it or download it.

I guess Disney have absolutely no idea what they're doing?

Yes, they only turn over $38bn a year. They are idiots.

Edited by john_p on Tuesday 11th January 14:23

And how do you know they wouldn't turn over more if their DVDs were in stock all year round?

They've probably got a thousand management graduates backed by farms of super-computers figuring out the optimium way to go to market.

And we all know how reliable computer models can be!!

My point merely was, it is Disney's strategy and short of trying it the other way we'll never know if it is the best or not! We're all wrong to judge the strategy as we can't view the opposite scenario.

I'll actually go as far as to say it is a winner, yes I don't care about downloading stuff but amongst the computer owning people I know I am in a group of three who will and there are probably nine or so who don't know how and even if they did, wouldn't do it!

Surely it would be worth Disney's while to have someone submit requests to torrent trackers to remove Disney films, after all, everyone knows who disney are and will fear the lawyers!

[Greenie]

OllieC said:

Deva Link said:

freecar said:

john_p said:

Deva Link said:

pokethepope said:

What a retarded strategy, how can it be adding scarcity. If a consumer wants it, they will buy off eBay, a website that still has it or download it.

I guess Disney have absolutely no idea what they're doing?

Yes, they only turn over $38bn a year. They are idiots.

Edited by john_p on Tuesday 11th January 14:23

And how do you know they wouldn't turn over more if their DVDs were in stock all year round?

They've probably got a thousand management graduates backed by farms of super-computers figuring out the optimium way to go to market.

Disney computer says make a sequel

EFA

[Guvernator]

Why have Disney returned this film to the Vault? Because they didn't want to leave it just lion-ing around.