Studios and theaters clash over FCC waiver

The nation's theater owners and movie studios are once again at odds when it comes to the future distribution of movies. In regulatory filing Wednesday, the Motion Picture Association of America, the chief lobbying group for the major studios, restated its support for a waiver of current Federal Communications Commission rules that would clear the way for a technology that would allow consumers to watch movies at home close to or during their theatrical release. The so-called selectable output control technology would prevent the illegal copying of movies, which has been a major stumbling block to delivering first-run movies directly to consumers. Theater owners, however, don't see it that way. The National Association of Theater Owners is opposed to the waiver and reiterated its opposition. Theater owners are concerned that narrowing or collapsing the current window between when a movie hits theaters and when it comes on DVD or video-on-demand would cut into box office revenues and erode the quality of movies shown on the big screen. The current window is about four months.