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The movie industry has been ruled by very specific rules about how and when different home video formats are released. The idea is that home video -- DVDs and video-on-demand -- has to come out long enough after a theatrical film release to keep moviegoers driving to movie theaters and paying for tickets.
Now as DVD sales growth has started to slow, retail giants like Wal-Mart[ WMT 53.88 
+0.25 (+0.47%) ] and Target [ TGT 52.73 +0.09 (+0.17%) ] have lost some of the power that allowed them to insist that their DVD releases were given priority, allowing the major studios to experiment with the "windows" within which they release their films in home video.
Warner Brothers [ TWX 30.6084 +0.0784 (+0.26%) ] , released two of its movies on video-on-demand through Comcast *before* releasing them on DVD, the first time a major Hollywood studio experimented with releasing a film on video-on-demand before DVD. When Warner Brothers tries something new the industry watches and takes careful note.
Warner Brothers have the largest home video library in Hollywood and has proven an industry-leader: it's decision to release its high-definition DVDs exclusively in the BluRay was the final straw that led that format to win the high-def format battle and when it began releasing films simultaneously on DVD and VOD it was the first major studio to do so.
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