KPS goes into overload mode on the question of bypassing distributors

AFTER remarking that we wouldn't be able to tell if KPS Video had boycotted titles picked up by Hongkong Telecom's proposed video-on-demand service, we fully expected a call from a KPS person.

It was Garrie Roman, managing director of KPS Retail, who called, but to our surprise he was not in rant-at-aggressive-columnist mode.

Indeed, he fully accepted that KPS had some problems getting enough copies of major movies to satisfy demand. He even volunteered that KPS Causeway Bay store was overloaded - 12,000 members at a store designed for about 8,000.

But his explanation is that the real problem lies in a group of video distributors with exclusive licences restricting supply by controlling prices of tapes.

Of about 30 local distributors, about five handle foreign films with notable firms being CIC, which is part of Paramount and directly handles that firm's movies; ERA, which represents Warner and Colombia; and IVL which handles many independents and has just taken Fox.

Tapes for rental cost KPS between $300 and $1,000 a piece which, Mr Roman says, limits KPS to between 30 and 100 copies per store. It is also, he claims, the reason that KPS has a flat $24 pricing scheme for both old and new movies. New movies have about a 90-day high earning period, he said.