MPAA & Studios to Cease Sending Out Screeners

The Motion Picture Association of America is working with the CEOs of the major studios on a plan whereby the studios would stop mailing out screeners of eligible films.

Studio executives have long been ambivalent about the process, preferring that their films be seen on the big screen. The new plan is not an artistic decision, but a business one: The screener cease-fire is proposed in the name of fighting piracy.

Every year, the studios mail out thousands of screeners, not only to voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, but to voting members of the guilds and organizations such as BAFTA and the Hollywood Foreign Press Assocation.

In the past few years, piracy of these screeners has proliferated, particularly of the DVDs. The majors have fretted about piracy, but wondered how to combat it.