Answer:
Rupert Murdoch controls both a major movie
studio-- Twentieth Century Fox-- and the nation’s
largest satellite broadcaster, DirecTV. DirecTV is in
the process of providing most of its 14 million American
subscribers with Tivo-type digital video recorders (DVRs)
and is considering entering into a deal with Comcast
to reach the cable audience. According to Peter
Chernin, Murdoch's second in command, Fox is proposing
to release its new movies on pay-per-view even before
they are released in the video stores, and, deal with
the Wal-Mart problem by also providing every one who
gets a movie on Pay-Per-View (which is a one-time rental_
a coupon for a free DVD of it, when it is released in
video stores, which will be redeemable at any Wal-Mart
store. Consumers, for their part, would get an
early viewing of a movie (as well as a later DVD), while
Wal-Mart would get a share of the pay-per-view money
and, even more important, potential shoppers coming
into its stores to redeem the DVD coupons.
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