Met Cancels Opera Pay-Per-View On-Demand

Call it a rare miscalculation for Metropolitan Opera General Manager Peter Gelb, who didn't count on the outcry from the movie theatres who were showing the Met's highly successful live in HD. According to a story in the New York Times, the Met has cancelled its on-demand pay-per-view telecasts for the season citing concerns that the 30-day delay was not long enough.

"There was this real outcry from the movie theaters," said Peter Gelb, the Met's general manager. "We were not aware they were going to feel this way until we announced we were doing this." He added: "We are not a movie. We're a live transmission."

Under agreements with major Hollywood studios movies usually take much longer to reach on-demand services. Mr. Gelb said the theater operators might have worried about alienating the studios by allowing a shorter lag. He said he hoped to start the on-demand showings next season, for which the schedule of opera transmissions has not yet been made.

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