COMM 351-7

producer -> distributor -> exhibitor -> consumer

media distribution strategy that involves transferring physical copies of media texts from exhibitor to exhibitor

the collections of available texts that distributors have for sale, typically including texts from a range of producers

ensure exhibitors will receive some kind of remuneration if texts underperform in sales revenues or audience ratings.

Exhibitors

prevented networks from distributing the programs they aired. Had to rely on distributors

The middlemen involved in media distribution and exhibition. They operate on the consumer's behalf when winnowing down the thousands of media products that are available on the market .

For showing a movie, you have to acquire rights to exhibit. Usually these rights sales specify how long the exhibitor can texts to audience (rights period)

• Distributors tend to shower praise on only a small portion of the products they acquire. American Pie 7 example
• Exhibitors advertise certain texts more prominently through differential pricing, coupons, and rebates

Where movies are released in large cities to create buzz and then released in smaller chains

• per capita revenues in each window
• differences in potential audience size
• degree to which audiences will consume the programming in downstream windows
• loss of interest among viewers following a products initial release
• how vulnerable the distrib channel is to illegal copying

unbundling media texts from their traditional distributing platforms and permitting them to circulate in other platforms

operate by using particularly popular programs to try to increase viewership of surrounding programs.