The great movie download rip-off
PARENTS who download children’s films online instead of buying DVDs are routinely being charged as much as double the price, research by The Mail on Sunday reveals.
Experts say many parents are opting for downloads over DVDs as there is no risk of a disc being scratched by children, the films can be viewed on portable devices such iPads and mobile phones and retailers such as John Lewis are phasing out DVD players.
But in a rip-off dubbed a ‘toddler tax’, an investigation found 29 of the 30 most popular children’s films were more costly to download on Amazon Prime, Google Play or Apple iTunes than they were to buy as DVDs. On Amazon, a DVD of the Frozen film is available for £6.40 yet its Amazon Prime download service charges £13.99, more than double. Mary Poppins costs £6.99 on DVD on Amazon, but £11.99 as a download on the same site.
The DVD boxset of Toy Story 1, 2 and 3 costs £14.99 from Amazon, but downloading each film separately on Amazon, Apple’s iTunes or Sky Store costs almost £42.
The Mail on Sunday found that just one title, The Princess Bride, was cheaper as a digital download rather than a physical DVD, but only when downloaded from Google Play. The saving is 1p.
Jasmine Birtles of consumer advice site Money Magpie said: ‘This is a toddler tax.
‘It looks like the digital players have got a cartel here and I’d like the Competition and Markets Authority to look at this.’ The death knell for DVDs first tolled two years ago when streaming and download services overtook physical formats.
In the 12 weeks to September 23 this year, 600,000 people bought a digital title on Amazon – a jump of 110 per cent compared with a year earlier, according to research firm Kantar Worldpanel.
Sources in the retail industry suggested the high prices could be due to deals struck with distributors, particularly Disney, which produces the majority of films for young children.
Amazon, Apple and Google declined to comment. Sky Store said it ‘offers the hybrid deal which includes a digital download as well as a DVD or Blu-ray copy’.