Movie Day-and-Date

Warner to Offer Download of "Harry Potter" Movie Day-and-Date with DVD

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 30, 2006 - 9:21am.

Burbank, Calif. - Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group announced on Thursday that it will become the first major studio to offer a downloadable version of a film on the same day as its DVD release, when it offers "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" through partner Free Record Shop in the Netherlands and Dutch-speaking Belgium. Along with "Harry Potter," FreeRecordShop.nl will offer nearly 100 Warner Bros. films as permanent downloads, including "Ocean's Twelve," "The Matrix" trilogy, "Casablanca" and "Doctor Zhivago". The movie download service from Free Record Shop, which operates 185 stores in the Netherlands, will deliver copy-protected films using Microsoft's Windows Media format. "We are excited to be the first studio to deliver secure and legal download-to-own films through the Internet simultaneous with the film's DVD debut," said Warner HEG president Kevin Tsujihara, adding that the service will "combat piracy by providing high quality, affordable and legal downloads."