As Hollywood increasingly seeks to diversify as ticket sales, overall, slump due to pirated films and DVD collectors cut down, legendary studio Warner Brothers has announced that it has launched an on-demand and shipping service screening its pre-1986 films. The theory is that there is a market for old film to those only relatively so.

[Still behind the times.]

Learning about the plan, one can only assume that Warner executives live in a bubble. Films can be purchased at WarnerArchives.com for $19.95 plus shipping, or downloaded for $14.95.

What is the point of such a service? Any of the films that Warner is offering for sale or download can probably be bought at Amazon or downloaded on iTunes or, better still, viewed over Netflix. Some Hollywood studios are still having a hard time catching up to new media.

Warner should follow the example of another legendary studio: MGM. MGM was teamed up with YouTube to offer many of its movies for free streaming and will acquire revenues through the placement of ads, akin to the successful Hulu.