November 21st: World Television Day

Sure, we’re obsessed with movies. Who isn’t?! At Distribution Solutions, we put so much more than movies on shelves and into your homes. In honor of World Television Day, we’d like to tell you about our other passion: the complete series release of some of the most treasured television shows of all time!

Did you know Mill Creek Entertainment, a division of Distribution Solutions, is the home entertainment industry’s leading independent studio for Blu-ray, DVD, and digital distribution AND also offers the lion’s share of our complete TV series?

“Mill Creek has had a focus on creating collectible products for a very long time – and our philosophy is that nothing is more collectible than people’s favorite TV shows! We work closely with several major studios to maximize the opportunity to get their content in front of consumers in retail stores,” states Jeff Hayne, Senior VP of Acquisitions and Production for Mill Creek Entertainment. “Mill Creek over indexes in the TV category – with a nearly 30% market share as it pertains to TV on DVD and Blu-ray across all studios.”

Mill Creek’s acquisition strategy makes sure that we have a steady pipeline of high-quality television programming available in stores and online, for those customers who want to own a piece of television history to revisit time and again.

When people ask “what’ve you been watching lately?” the answer is usually something totally new and binge-worthy, but at Distribution Solutions, we know that the best of TV reaches far beyond “what’s new” and into the nostalgic fan favorites… and we are here to keep serving up what viewers want!

Check out this selection of best-selling complete TV series we have available at retail stores and online for our fellow fans of television!

That 70’s Show (Blu-ray)

King Of Queens

Miami Vice (Blu-ray)

Community (Blu-ray)

Ultraman (Blu-ray)

3rd Rock from the Sun

Quantum Leap (Blu-ray)

Good Times

About Mill Creek Entertainment

Mill Creek Entertainment, a division of Alliance Entertainment, is the home entertainment industry’s leading independent studio for Blu-ray, DVD, and digital distribution. With direct sales pipelines to all primary retail and online partners, Mill Creek Entertainment licenses, produces, markets, and distributes a dynamic array of film and television content to over 30,000 retail stores and thousands of websites reaching millions of customers across North America. Mill Creek Entertainment’s expansive library includes Oscar®-winning theatrical feature films, Emmy®-winning classic and current TV series, original documentary productions and pop-culture favorites that enlighten, educate, and entertain. Mill Creek Entertainment is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Mill Creek Entertainment is distributed by Distribution Solutions, a division of Alliance Entertainment. For more information, please visit www.millcreekent.com

About Distribution Solutions

Distribution Solutions, a division of Alliance Entertainment, is the largest aggregator and downstream distributor of independent film labels in North America. We are a premier partner for home entertainment sales and distribution, with capabilities including Physical Distribution, Digital Sales/Delivery, and SVOD/Linear Licensing for over 60 content providers, including Mill Creek Entertainment, RLJ Entertainment, and Cinedigm.
Distribution Solutions offers comprehensive in-house Post-Production Services, Consumer Marketing, Design Services, and Turnkey Operations Management—everything it takes to set our partners up for success.

Partnership Announcement: Powerhouse Films

Distribution Solutions, a division of Alliance Entertainment, is pleased to announce a physical media partnership with Powerhouse Films’ UK-based label Indicator.

Distribution Solutions will handle sales, distribution of all Powerhouse Films sell-through releases in the US and Canada.

“We are very excited to be in business with Powerhouse Films,” states Distribution Solutions President, Ben Means. “Partnering internationally with a film label like Indicator, which has such a driven passion for physical media, helps expand the quality and coverage of classic films we distribute to the US and Canada.”

*January 2022 will see the first batch of releases in the North American market.*

Powerhouse Films has an extensive collection of classic films that includes limited-edition box sets and single-title releases, as well as standard-edition reissues of limited-edition titles that have gone out of print, such as John Carpenter’s Christine, Jacques Tourneur’s Night of the Demon, and Dennis Hopper’s The Last Movie.

“We’re thrilled to be bringing our unique blend of cult and classic cinema to audiences in the US and Canada in partnership with the fantastic team at Distribution Solutions,” says Powerhouse Films’ co-founder, Sam Dunn. “We’ve been working hard unearthing and restoring a raft of incredible titles in order to put together a schedule that will surprise and delight even the most adventurous viewer.”

Celebrated filmmaker Guillermo del Toro added his praise for the label, stating “Indicator lovingly curates and enshrines obscure, precious gems for the obsessive collector and the genre connoisseur.”

The first physical Powerhouse Films releases distributed by Distribution Solutions will be available for purchase in January 2022.

To sign up for the Powerhouse Films newsletter click here.

About Powerhouse Films

Powerhouse Films was founded in the summer of 2016 by UK film and video industry veterans with a passion for film and physical media. Its Indicator Blu-ray label publishes a critically acclaimed collection of cult, classic, and criminally overlooked films, each mastered from the finest available materials and expertly encoded for optimum results.

Indicator editions contain lovingly curated extra features, including newly produced audio commentaries and on-camera interviews, rare short films, and previously unseen archival materials. First-run Limited Editions contain reversible sleeves and exclusive booklets with newly commissioned essays, contemporary interviews, articles and reviews, and film credits.

Easy as S-B-T

Not so long ago, retailers across our delightful nation started to discuss new trading terms for their home entertainment departments.

Quickly the “talk” turned to adoption across the marketplace. While whispers of “Scan Based Trading” were just beginning to buzz in the corridors and conference rooms of other distributors and studios, our team was already leading the charge to transition our labels into this new world as seamlessly as possible.

Distribution Solutions manages two dedicated fixtures in 329 Menards stores

But let’s back up. Not everyone even knows what we’re talking about. To appreciate this pivot fully, here’s the backstory: the home entertainment industry existed for decades under a model where the process was pretty much as follows:

(1) distributors pitched retail buyers,
(2) orders were placed by retailers for all those awesome DVD titles,
(3) goods were shipped to retail stores and warehouses by distributors, who then
(4) collected monies after an agreed-upon interval of time.

Most of these DVD/Blu-ray goods were expected/projected to go home with happy customers, with a certain unfortunate percentage destined to return to distribution warehouses eventually. In this model, a retailer’s resources were tied up in inventory, awaiting a sale.

The Scan Based Trading model represents a different approach entirely. With SBT, suppliers maintain the ownership of the inventory within the retailers’ stores or warehouses until the item is scanned at the point of sale. This reduces financial risk on behalf of the retailer, while literally, nothing looks different to the consumer in the store.

But what’s the impact on the supplier? We asked Pat McDonough, our SVP of Sales and here are his thoughts on the topic:

“The benefit of the SBT model is that it gives Distribution Solutions control of the space, which guarantees product placement for our label partners. It also allows us to make sure that the right product is in the right stores for the best sell-through.”
Pat McDonough, SVP Sales

As far as scope, Distribution Solutions currently trades on SBT terms with Target, Best Buy, FYE, Fred Meyer, and Bi-Mart. But that’s not all…

Distribution Solutions also manages SBT inventory within Dollar General (with permanent racks in 4,700 of their 17k stores!) and Menards (a value bin AND a dedicated 4’x6′ fixture).

Our team’s dedicated floor space and fixtures represent valuable opportunities for our team to curate re-sets that support the lifecycle planning of our partners’ content. Our relationships also allow us to think outside the box (and in-line sections) and place trays and other specialty POS displays to support key releases across these accounts.

To learn more about Scan Based Trading and Distribution Solutions, drop us a note at studios@ds.aent.com