Michael Dubelko was founder and CEO of DVD Express, which he set up after Cannel Studios, where he was president, was sold to Fox News.

In an interview with DVD Hotseat he was asked “At what rate – compared to new releases – do people actually order backcatalog titles? Are back catalog titles dead or do they sell at a steady rate?”

Bizarrely the company didn’t know this sort of information – even though it was over two years old at the time, and had turned over $16m the previous year: “We don’t have any statistics on this, but I believe it’s over 50% at this stage.”

Is it any wonder the company couldn’t succeed if they couldn’t even tell things like this?

Reminds me of the scary conversations we had with the Founder/CEO of another big-name US on-line DVD retailer we were considering buying, who not only couldn’t answer, but seemingly couldn’t even understand the relevance of questions about customer retention, repeat purchase rates, product split etc. That company no longer exists either. No surprise there then.