opening movie rental biz

[hkjai]

In the US, you're supposed to obtain a license from the Motion Picture Licensing Corporation (MPLC) before you can open shop?

Is this also needed for HK or other parts of Asia? Seems very uncommon.

[imparanoic]

hk authorities have been stamping down unlicenced renting places, there used to hundreds of rental places in HK 10 years ago, now barely any, also digital downloads, cheap pirates (now high quality fake blurays from shenzhen) and cheap original dvd's have rendered this business almost obsolete ( almost like us' blockbuster, except the prices are not a complete rip off)

[wtbhotia]

I keep seeing movie rental places closing down also, i mean how many VCD (8$ rental for two days) or DVD ($15 rental for two days) do you need to rent out to even make money to pay off the shop rent / management fees / electricity.

As Imparanoic said everyone downloads / buys cheap pirates (across the border) or you can even watch full movies on youtube for free.

So why bother opening movie rental biz in HK, it wont last long.

[INXS]

Does anyone even have a dvd player anymore? It's a very bad idea...

[imparanoic]

however, game rental business could be viable, esp, rarer party games such as singstar and buzz ( not avalible in HK, but common in the west, ps3 has no region code)

[virago]

Does anyone even have a dvd player anymore? It's a very bad idea...

Yes, I've got one. You want it? Special price for Geo member.

Sent from somewhere....

[hkjai]

Thanks all for the reality check. Have an idea (it's not brick and mortar), don't know if it will go anywhere or not, just want to know what the statutory requirements are.


So, do you actually need a license to operate, what are the requirements? couldn't find anything online so far, is there a resource someone can point to?