Home Media Magazine - February 24, 2008 - (Page S7) Skies The success of Blu-ray Disc as the logical successor to DVD is critical, not just to Hollywood but also to retailing in general. Here’s why. In the entertainment industry, DVD represents about 50% of all revenue for studios. In other words, roughly 50 cents of every studio dollar come from DVD; the other 50 cents are generated by everything else, from theatrical to television. The nightmare that has kept most entertainment company execs awake at night for the past few years is the flattening and even slight decline of the $24 billion DVD market after an impressive 10-year run. Warner Bros. reaped more revenue than other studios by publishing in both high-def disc formats. However, it was this bad dream of contributing to the delay or, God forbid, unsuccessful launch of the next-gen disc technology that was concerning even the president and CEO of the entire Time Warner corporation, Jeffrey Bewkes, who oversaw the studio’s decision to get behind a single format. “The window of opportunity for highdefinition DVD could be missed if format confusion continues to linger,” he said. Bewkes isn’t alone in his thinking — not by a long shot. “The longer it takes for high-def discs to take off, the larger the window of opportunity becomes for consumers to find alternative methods for getting high-def content in easier, more convenient and possibly more affordable ways,” says Paul Erickson, director of DVD and HD Market Research at The NPD Group’s DisplaySearch. “There was a huge lesson in the audio market: In the face of a changing Continued on page 8 » February 2008 IT’S BLU 7
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