Home Media Magazine - March 30 - April 5, 2008 - (Page 36)

NEWS Blu-ray Disc Sales Surging Continued from page 1 www.homemediamagazine.com new wave of PS3 buyers are likely “average consumers who consume movies as well as games.” The sales gains that have been achieved so far, Adams notes, have come before Hollywood begins an allout push to drive Blu-ray Disc sales, both through general consumer awareness and education campaigns and a specific effort directed at PS3 owners. “The promotion to PlayStation 3 homes hasn’t really kicked in yet,” he said. “And assuming that works, when you’re talking 5 million homes, getting them to buy just one more movie a year can make a significant difference in a small market like this.” Adams said studios are keen to derive a greater chunk of their sales from high-def software because of the price differential. The average street price for a newly released DVD over its first three months in stores is $20.57, Adams said, while the Blu-ray Disc version goes for $31.31. A similar effect was seen with titles released in the now-defunct HD DVD format. “The biggest title of last year, in terms of high-definition disc sales, was Transformers, which derived a little more than 4% of its total unit sales from the HD DVD version,” Adams said. “But in terms of revenue, the percentage was 6% of the total.” Copy Protection Broken? Continued from page 1 veracity of SlySoft’s claims has yet to be The software appears to pose a serious determined. threat to the security claims proffered by “We’re checking into it,” he said. “Until we supporters of Blu-ray and BD+, includ- verify their claims, we can’t comment much ing the assumption the technology was on it. They’re being so bold about it.” impenetrable to hackers for the next 10 Richard Doherty, technology analyst years. with The Envisioneering Group, said he DVD-ripping software is not new, but the doesn’t dispute the claims of AnyDVD HD, extent to which AnyDVD HD allegedly can regardless of their legality. circumvent encryption technology, region“We haven’t seen a prototype, but techal coding and other safeguards appears to nically it violates provisions of the Digital put it on a collision Millennium Copy«WE HAVEN’T SEEN A course with studios right Act,” Doherty and the Motion Pic- PROTOTYPE, BUT TECHNICALLY said. IT VIOLATES PROVISIONS OF ture Association of He said it is likely THE DIGITAL MILLENNIUM America (MPAA). AnyDVD could cirCOPYRIGHT ACT.» The trade associacumvent existing RICHARD DOHERTY, tion in 2004 helped DRM safeguards ANALYST shutter 321 Studios, on a Blu-ray movie, which at the time but only on a discsold DVD- and game-copying software by-disc basis. Doherty said designers of online. Similar software from Sonic Solu- BD+ envisioned just such a scenario, and tions does not circumvent existing copy thus, studios have the ability to implement protections in Hollywood movies. coding changes on the fly that can render John Malcolm, EVP of the MPAA and a movie unplayable. director of worldwide antipiracy for the He cited as an example that someone organization, would not comment on any could discover that an illegal copy of course of action the MPAA may take 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment’s against SlySoft, but he did note the com- Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer pany is openly profiting off its AnyDVD was different from his friend’s. software. “Just as studios are able to limit playback “SlySoft is not hiding what it’s doing,” through regional coding, they could send he said. “They’re quite proud of what they a disc out to one retailer and another to are doing.” Blockbuster,” he said. “Whatever glee [SlyAnyDVD and its Web site have been Soft] may have, it may be short-lived.” outlawed in Germany and lost twice on Parsons agreed, noting that the BD+ appeal in court. technology can stop playback on discs that Andy Parsons, SVP of product planning have been copied with “known hacks.” for the home entertainment group at Pio“As new titles come out, [studios] can get neer Electronics and marketing director smarter with the software,” he said. Chris Tribbey contributed to this report. of the Blu-ray Disc Association, said the Even in the busy fourth quarter of 2007, sales of high-profile new releases were overwhelmingly tilted toward DVD. Fox’s The Simpsons Movie generated just 2.8% of its total sales from Blu-ray Disc, while the BD version of Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End accounted for 3.7% of total sales. Only after Toshiba threw in the towel on HD DVD Feb. 19 did Blu-ray sales spike. Warner Home Video’s Michael Clayton, released that day, generated 5.5% of its total first-week sales from Blu-ray Disc. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment’s 30 Days of Night, released Feb. 26, snagged 8.9% of its total unit sales from the Blu-ray Disc version. Home entertainment industry analyst Tom Adams, of Adams Media Research, credits the end of the format war with igniting Blu-ray Disc sales, a trend he sees continuing throughout the year. “Before, there was a tendency to play it safe and stick with the standard DVD,” Adams said. “But now there’s no longer anything to worry about.” Fox’s Feldstein agrees. “Consumers in the high-def marketplace are now purchasing with confidence,” he said. “The confusion in the marketplace that you saw when there were two formats continues to work itself out, and once education campaigns begin and the retail presence [of Blu-ray] expands, we should start to see the numbers soar even higher.” Fox market researchers estimate Bluray Disc sales will hit $1 billion in consumer spending in calendar 2008, up from an estimated $300 million for combined Blu-ray and HD DVD software in calendar 2007. Adams expects to see a steady uptick in Blu-ray Disc software sales as more players come to market. He projects the year will end with 2.9 million dedicated Blu-ray Disc players in homes, up from 500,000 at the end of 2007, and another 8.4 million PlayStation 3s, with built-in Blu-ray drives, up from 3.2 million at the end of last year. Adams said early adopters who are buying dedicated Blu-ray players now are likely to be rabid consumers of movies, driving up sales much as in the early days of DVD. At the same time, the expansion of PS3 beyond the hardcore gaming crowd should also lead to an increase in movie sales, since the BRIEFS I ELECTRONIC ARTS AND STARZ MEDIA PRODUCE ‘DEAD SPACE’ Electronic Arts Inc. and Starz Media have joined forces to develop an animated prequel to the sci-fi video game Dead Space, to be released on broadcast TV and subsequently DVD. The feature will pick up where the original comic book series ends and leads up to the beginning of the video game. The story covers the exploits of a futuristic mining spaceship after a mysterious artifact is found and the crew must deal with a sinister alien presence. The film is set to debut at the same time as the video game, which is due Oct. 28 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Starz Media films are distributed on DVD via the company’s Anchor Bay Entertainment label. – Billy Gil now that the market has settled on a single format,” said Ahmad Ouri, president of Technicolor Content Services. Malik will report to Bob Michaels, VP of worldwide DVD for Technicolor Content Services. “Technicolor’s entry into the postproduction space in India is well timed with the introduction of new high-definition content production, delivery and display technologies,” Malik said. Technicolor’s annual DVD manufacturing capacity is more than 1.8 billion DVDs. – Chris Tribbey I ONLINE SURVEY: HDTV OWNERS SLOW TO ADOPT HIGH-DEF CABLE SERVICE An online survey of more than 1,000 Americans by ABI Research found that even those with an HDTV are slow to pay for high-def TV service. Of the 1,002 respondents, 41% had an HDTV and only 56% of those subscribed to any HD service. “Pay TV operators need to close this gap by highlighting what HDTV owners without a HD package are missing out on,” said ABI Research senior analyst Cesar Bachelet. Two-thirds of all respondents paid for some form of TV service, while only 54% of all respondents said they were satisfied with their service. Nearly half of all respondents (45%) said they use pay-per-view, but most use it only once a month or less, and very few respondents expressed interest in next-generation services, with the exception of moving content from a computer to the TV. – Chris Tribbey ‘Gothic’ Screens at SXSW I TECHNICOLOR OPENS DVD FACILITY IN INDIA Thomson’s Technicolor division has added a new DVD compression and authoring operation in Bangalore, India, inside its new animation and game-design facility. Opening in May, the new compression and authoring facility will act as a central hub for Technicolor’s worldwide DVD operations. Technicolor also announced it had tapped Sumit Malik as GM of the India facility. Before joining Technicolor, Malik was executive director of advanced technology for Sony Pictures. “As part of our expanding role in the Indian market, we feel the time is opportune to grow our C&A offering in Bangalore, especially in light of the increased demand for Blu-ray authoring Arts Alliance America premiered its Southern Gothic at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas, to a sold-out audience at the new Alamo Ritz Theater. (L-R): Director Mark Young, Arts Alliance president Joe Amodei and star Yul Vazquez. HOME MEDIA MAGAZINE (ISSN 1934-9882) is published weekly 51 times per year (weekly except for one week at the end of December) by Questex Media Group, Inc., 306 West Michigan Street, Suite 200, Duluth, MN 55802. Subscription rates: $49.99 for one year in the United States and Possessions; $79.99 for one year in Canada and Mexico; all other countries $99.99 for one year (by surface mail). Add $75 annually for air-expedited service. 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Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Home Media Magazine - March 30 - April 5, 2008

Home Media Magazine - March 30-April 5, 2008 Contents News Commentary TV DVD Reviews Pipeline Top 20 DVD Sellers Research Top 20 Rentals and Top 10 Charts Just Announced

Home Media Magazine - March 30 - April 5, 2008

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