Luc Besson: When a Movie Director Wants the Market to Evolve

Luc Besson, the French movie director known for many of his films and anime (5th element, Nikita, etc.), decided to fight against piracy, but unlike to promote DRM or all kind of technology restrictions for the customer, he wants to change the way and the schedule currently followed by a movie from its release in cinema till its availability on TV.
Currently in France, from the day the movie is shown for the first time in cinema, the schedule is as follow:
- 6 months later, available on DVD/BD media (renting or purchasing)
- 33 weeks later, movie available on VOD
- 9 months later, movie available on private TV channel, pay-per-view offer
- 12 months later, movie available on private TV channel
- 24 months (or 18 months), movie on free/public TV channels if they contributed to its production
- 36 months later, movie on all free/public TV channels
Luc Besson wants to shake this schedule, break those layers of distribution, and he offers to make the movie available on VOD as soon as its life in cinema has ended. If such offer might indeed compete with illegal downloading from P2P networks, it will of course not please companies making money by distributing movies on physical media. This offer could help local systems to unify worldwide to avoid having one country having more relaxed regulations preventing homogenous online movie offers. Currently, we are paying premium price for movies on DVD and BD media, in order for Hollywood studios to sell identical products around 1 USD in China or India…