Home Media Magazine - March 2-8, 2008 - (Page 8) HIGH-DEF www.homemediamagazine.com Sonic Eyes ‘Blu’ Christmas By Erik Gruenwedel onic Solutions is projecting significant software revenue jumps in 2008 due to the end of the format war and Blu-ray’s widespread adoption by the studios. The software manufacturer licenses Blu-ray professional-authoring software to content creators. Sonic recorded $1.6 million in HD pro-authoring revenue in the third quarter (ended Dec. 31), up 8% from the same period the previous year. The company posted revenue of $34 million for Roxio consumer software, which includes authoring, editing and burning software. Sonic posted Q3 net revenue of $35.6 million. The company said preliminary financials, which don’t include net income, will be updated while it deals with restating previous quarters. In a call with investors, Sonic CEO Dave Habiger said he expects hardware manufacturers aligned with Blu-ray to bring multiple products to market. “As they scale Blu-ray devices, price points will continue to decline, and we expect to see an increase in sellthrough signaling to the major distribution studios that the format is reaching critical mass,” he said. Habiger said when standalone Bluray players surpass $2 million in revenue, studios will increasingly commit PANASONIC’S HD TOUR, FOX AT NASCAR Blu-ray Disc players, camcorders, camanasonic’s “Living in High-Defini- eras and home entertainment centers. tion” nationwide tour stopped at “By upgrading to Panasonic displays, Calithe California Speedway in Fontana fornia Speedway will give guests in its VIP Feb. 22-24, where VIP viewsuites a viewing experience ers of the NASCAR event like no other,” said Panagot a peek at new Panasonic COO Joe Taylor. “Fans sonic Viera plasma and LCD will see their favorite racHDTVs. ing teams in pristine highAdditionally, 20th Cendefinition with eye-popping tury Fox Home Entertain- Inside the “Living in High- brilliance and color.” ment promoted the Cops: Definition” Tour Bus Meanwhile, Fox hon20th Anniversary DVD at ored “Cops” creator John the event. Langley at the Auto Club 500 race Feb. The new Panasonic TVs were installed 24. Named an honorary race official for in all 91 of the track’s VIP suites, and the the event, Langley had $10,000 donated “Living in High-Definition” tour bus — one by Fox on his behalf to The National Law of four that has been traveling nation- Enforcement Memorial Fund. Fox also wide since September — gave race fans donated 200 tickets to the event to The a hands-on look at the company’s TVs, Police Activities League. By Chris Tribbey BRIEFS I ECHO BRIDGE GOES BLU Echo Bridge Home Entertainment enters the Blu-ray Disc market April 1 with 10.5 Apocalypse, Beer League, Blackbeard, Category 7: The End of the World, The Curse of King Tut’s Tomb and The Last Sentinel. – Thomas K. Arnold P S more catalog titles to production. “As the studios open up their catalogs for Blu-ray, demand of these professional tools will increase,” he said. He said implementation of BD technology in CE devices would result in improved revenue for Sonic’s advanced technology group. Habiger said with recent announcements that Sony, Adobe and Broadcom would incorporate Sonic’s BD authoring tools, he projects additional large-scale traffic. “We expect other customers to follow, resulting in per-unit royalties and other revenue ramping in anticipation of a Blu Christmas,” he said. Habiger said there already is an uptick in BD authoring by the studios, following the departure of HD DVD from the market. He said wide-scale adoption of BD players will be next. Finally, Sonic remains bullish on its Qflix download-to-own software. The CEO said Sonic’s goal is to provide a software infrastructure that lets partners drive adoption of Qflix through all online and brick-and-mortar retail sellers of DVD, including kiosks. “We project 66.2 billion blank DVDs are purchased annually for non-commercial use, and when Qflix becomes the standard on-demand technology, we stand to benefit from consumer adoption of download-to-burn,” Habiger said. I HDSCAPE HAS DISCOUNTED BDS TO REPLACE HD DVDS HDScape is offering Blu-ray Discs to customers who purchased titles in the HD DVD format. HD DVD owners can keep their discs and receive a Blu-ray (list $24.95) of the same title by sending in the paper case wrap of the HD DVD plus $12.94. – Chris Tribbey I REPORT: HDTV SALES DISAPPOINT IN 2007 Post-holiday distributor sales of HDTVs fell significantly compared to the same period last year, according to research data. Pacific Media Associates said sales of HDTV units dropped 37% in January, while North American inventory levels increased 68% compared to the same period last year. – Erik Gruenwedel Sony Bowing New Blu-ray Disc Players By Erik Gruenwedel ony Corp. last week said it will launch two new Blu-ray Disc players this summer and fall that are Internet-enabled and feature interactive options. The players are Sony’s first new Blu-ray players since Toshiba Corp. pulled the plug on HD DVD in early February. Sony’s previously released players already featured an Ethernet port and interactive (HDi) capability. S The BDP-S350 will retail for $400 and features Web-connectivity. A subsequent software upgrade reportedly will allow access to Internet content via BD-Live. The BDP-S550 ($500) automatically includes BD-Live and is slated to ship this fall. Both players also include USB port for external storage (1GB for the S550), picture-in-picture technology and 1080p resolution, among other features. I BLU-QUAL TESTS BD QUALITY My Eye Media has added Blu-ray Disc to its arsenal of media quality-control services, launching Blu-qual. The Bluray testing solution is designed to make sure the more-complex Blu-ray discs play correctly before they leave for retail. – Chris Tribbey TOP 10 HIGH-DEF SELLERS H IG H -D EF SELLER S Week ended February 24, 2008 FORMAT LABEL INDEX TOP 10 HIGH-DEF SELLERS HI GH- DE F S E L L E RS Aggregate by Title Week ended February 24, 2008 FORMAT LABEL INDEX TITLE TITLE Ice Age H I G H -D E F CO M I NG U P STREETING Ice Age Blu-ray Fox Street Date: 3/4 Into the Wild HD DVD Paramount Street Date: 3/4 Naked Beneath the HD DVD Under the Bed Films Street Date: 3/4 The Rookie Blu-ray Disney Street Date: 3/4 Things We Lost in the Fire HD DVD Paramount Street Date: 3/4 Dan in Real Life Blu-ray Disney Street Date: 3/11 PREBOOKING Alvin and the Chipmunks Blu-ray Fox Pre: 3/5, Street: 4/1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 American Gangster Michael Clayton The Rock Cars We Own the Night Planet Earth: The Complete Series Con Air Gone Baby Gone Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead … Crimson Tide HD DVD/DVD Blu-ray Blu-ray Blu-ray Blu-ray Blu-ray Blu-ray Blu-ray Blu-ray Blu-ray Universal 100.00 Warner 62.24 Disney/Hollywood 27.26 Disney 26.18 Sony Pictures 24.29 BBC Video 22.69 Disney/Touchstone 21.37 Disney/Miramax 19.89 Disney 19.26 Disney/Hollywood 18.28 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 American Gangster Michael Clayton The Rock Cars Planet Earth: The Complete Series We Own the Night Con Air Gone Baby Gone 300 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead … HD DVD/DVD Universal 100.00 Blu-ray Warner 62.24 Blu-ray Disney/Hollywood 27.26 Blu-ray Disney 26.18 BD; HD DVD BBC Video 25.33 Blu-ray Sony Pictures 24.29 Blu-ray Disney/Touchstone 21.37 Blu-ray Disney/Miramax 19.89 BD; HD DVD/DVD Warner 19.40 Blu-ray Disney 19.26 Source: Nielsen VideoScan First Alert data Source: Nielsen VideoScan First Alert data TOP 5 HIGH-DEF BLU-R AY D ISC Week ended February 24, 2008 LABEL INDEX TOP 5 HIGH-DEF HD DVD Week ended February 24, 2008 LABEL INDEX TITLE TITLE 1 2 3 4 5 Michael Clayton The Rock Cars We Own the Night Planet Earth: The Complete Series Warner Disney/Hollywood Disney Sony Pictures BBC Video 100.00 43.80 42.06 39.02 36.46 1 2 3 4 5 American Gangster Transformers The Complete Matrix Trilogy Batman Begins The Bourne Ultimatum Universal 100.00 Para./DreamWorks 6.20 Warner 5.99 Warner 4.06 Universal 3.53 Source: Nielsen VideoScan First Alert data Source: Nielsen VideoScan First Alert data Home Media Magazine March 2–8, 2008 http://www.homemediamagazine.com
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.