Home Media Magazine - Hollywood Goes High-Def - June 2008 - (Page 10)

retail insider » Continued from page 8 entertainment,” Circuit City spokeswoman Jackie Foreman told Home Media Magazine recently. Both retailers sell the Sony S300 and S500 players ($399 and $599, respectively) and the Panasonic BD30 ($499), while Best Buy also carries LG and Samsung players, the latter of which was being offered in late April on clearance for $500 after a $100 rebate. Best Buy’s efforts began with an announcement Feb. 11 that the retailer would do its best to end consumer high-def disc format confusion by prominently showcasing Blu-ray hardware and software in stores and online beginning in early March. “Best Buy will recommend Blu-ray as the preferred format,” president and COO Brian Dunn said. “Our decision to shine a spotlight on Blu-ray Disc players and other Blu-ray products is a strong signal to our customers that we believe Blu-ray is the right format choice for them.” Mike Vitelli, Best Buy’s SVP, Home Solutions, added: “We believe our move to feature Blu-ray should help consumers feel confident in their high-def content choices.” Blu-ray Online Online retailers are doing their part to push Blu-ray, even if the sales haven’t yet prompted them to put a major spotlight on it. Amazon.com recently featured Blu-ray as a great gift for Mother’s Day in one of its consumer e-newsletters, noting chick flicks on Blu-ray such as Enchanted, 27 Dresses, P.S. I Love You and Becoming Jane. Swasey of Netflix notes the online rental service’s dedicated Blu-ray section featuring a customer service Q&A about the format, notations on each title’s page if it is available in Blu-ray, and an option to have Blu-ray versions of titles automatically shipped to you. But while boasting that its move to support Blu-ray exclusively in February drove HD DVD out of the market, Swasey says there has not been “a groundswell of people that have signed on to Blu-ray.” “Of the 8.2 million members, maybe a handful are Bluray customers,” he said. “We don’t want to clutter the site to appeal to those few.” In fact, Netflix went a step further recently by announcing that it would relegate its approximately 500 Blu-ray titles as “premium” items and charge an extra fee for Blu-ray orders over DVDs. Amazon promoted 27 Dresses (top) for Mother’s Day, while Lionsgate dropped the price on Terminator 2 (bottom). Nonetheless Swasey said Netflix expects to see more Blu-ray customers by the fourth quarter. Studios Helping Out on Price For their part, studio executives usually go silent when asked to share information about their efforts with retailers in regards to Blu-ray. Last year saw numerous bundlings and promotional offers such as the one Sony is running with Circuit City and Best Buy. Price has become a key issue. Initially Blu-ray titles were generally priced from $10 to $15 higher than the same DVD title, sometimes with no extra notable bonus features on the Blu-ray version. Many are just $5 more, and some are priced the same or just $1 higher than DVD. Lionsgate became the first distributor this year to reprice a handful of its early Blu-ray releases, including Terminator 2: Judgment Day, to $19.99, down $10 from the original SRP. Amazon.com now sells the title for $11.95. 10 HOLLYWOOD goes HIGH-DEF June 2008 http://Amazon.com http://Amazon.com

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Home Media Magazine - Hollywood Goes High-Def - June 2008 Contents Retail Insider From the Blogosphere High-Def Data Tables Blu-Ray Disc Listings

Home Media Magazine - Hollywood Goes High-Def - June 2008

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