Warner Bros.’ plan to release selected movies to video-on-demand services at the same time they come out on DVD is a test of whether Hollywood can expand one distribution pipeline without hurting another, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The studio, a unit of Time Warner Inc., New York, will begin the trial nationally July 10 with the release of “The Astronaut Farmer,” which took in only about $11 million at the box office. It will test larger titles such as “300” in certain overseas markets later in the summer.

The move is an attempt to persuade consumers to rent movies from video-on-demand services rather than from retailers who rent out physical DVDs. Studios typically keep 15% to 20% of revenue from video-store rentals, compared to 60% to 70% of a VOD rental. The studio wants to do that without cutting into the sale of DVDs to consumers, one of its most important revenue streams. But DVD sales, a $16 billion business last year in the U.S., have been slowing, forcing studios to experiment with other sales channels.

Warner and other major studios have already tried releasing movies onto video-on-demand at the same time as DVD in test markets such as Pittsburgh and Denver, working with cable operator Comcast Corp. Separately, Warner has worked with Time Warner Cable in other markets such as Austin, Texas. Based on data from those cities, Warner believes it won’t cannibalize DVD sales, because the advertising it does for the VOD also boosts DVDs. “It appears to not be in any way hurting our sell-through business,” said Andrew Mellet, senior vice president for video-on-demand.

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