Home Media Magazine - October 7-13, 2007 - (Page 13) www.homemediamagazine.com NEWS P E O P LE I FIRST LOOK NAMES MARKETING VP First Look Studios has named Kevin Sullivan VP of home entertainment marketing. He will report directly to Brooke Ford, First Look EVP of worldwide marketing. Sullivan previously served as director of product for Blockbuster Online. He will be relocating from Dallas to First Look’s office in Century City, Calif. Analyst: Blockbuster Q3 Subs Will Drop Cut in marketing spend a major factor By Erik Gruenwedel R E TA I L Blockbuster Inc.’s Total Access subscriber growth is expected to have cooled. An analyst said as many as 100,000 members may have been lost in the third quarter, which ended Sept. 30. Michael Pachter, analyst with Wedbush Morgan Securities in Los Angeles, said new Blockbuster CEO Jim Keyes has vowed to reduce ad spending on Total Access, which he said will result in stalled growth. Keyes made the announcement in July after Dallasbased Blockbuster posted losses exceeding $35 million. In an attempt to wrest business from online rental pioneer Netflix, Blockbuster has spent more than $300 million marketing Total Access, which allows members to rent DVDs online and return them in-store. The program launched last November. The strategy apparently worked, as Netflix posted its BRIEFS I NETFLIX ADDS NEW INTEL SEARCH BROWSER Online DVD rental pioneer Netflix Inc. has quietly updated its search browser in an effort to make movie selections easier. While it is not Google in its speed or breadth of relevant data, the technological advances now allow users to locate movie titles and instant PC streaming options by inputting just a few letters of the title. For example, finding Disney/Pixar’s Ratatouille might have previously required some knowledge of French, but now simply typing in the letters, R-A-T, will suffice. “We’ve made modifications on all aspects of the Web site over the years, some small, some big, but this is a pretty noticeable one,” said Netflix spokesperson Steve Swasey. —Erik Gruenwedel I KOCH VISION NAMES ACQUISITIONS VP Koch Vision has named Steven Galloway VP of acquisitions. Galloway will be based out of Los Angeles and will report to Koch Vision president Michael Rosenberg. Galloway will handle acquiring North American home entertainment distribution rights for Koch Vision programming. He also will strive to develop strategic relationships with independent studios, cable networks, producers and other content suppliers. Galloway previously served as acquisitions consultant for Shout! Factory. —Billy Gil first-ever subscriber decline (by 55,000) in the second quarter. Pachter said that a constant subscriber churn rate (the proportion of subscribers who cancel during a given time period), coupled with a reduced number of new subscribers, will result in a negative subscriber growth rate for Total Access. He said the company’s sustainable marketing spend rate was about $35 million a quarter, which meant Blockbuster could slash as much as $25 million in marketing per quarter. The company also capped the number of free in-store rentals (to five) on its most popular $17.99 per month plan. “The key is that they have spent less and have limited in-store rental swaps,” he said. Blockbuster spokesperson Karen Raskoff said the company hadn’t reported its third-quarter earnings, so it wouldn’t be able to comment on analyst projection. Warner Acquires Peanuts Library Paramount Home Entertainment had held the line for more than 10 years By Thomas K. Arnold S U P P L I E R It’s your new studio, Charlie Brown. Warner Home Video has signed an exclusive worldwide home video distribution deal for the “Peanuts” library of more than 50 TV specials, which has rested with Paramount Home Entertainment for more than a decade. Warner also will create direct-tovideo features based on the “Peanuts” comic strip for release under the Warner Premiere label, along with short-form original programming for digital distribution. Warner inked the multiyear deal with United Media, Charles M. Schulz Creative Associates and Lee Mendelson Film Productions. “We think it is a perennial brand, and we see consistent sales throughout the year on it,” said Jeff Brown, SVP and GM of television and franchise product for Warner Home Video. “In addition, we have positioned ourselves as a leader in classic animation, from Looney Toons and DC Comics to our recent acquisition of Popeye.” Indeed, Warner is considered a leader in the field of classic animation, with a line of critically hailed collector sets of classic cartoons such as “Looney Tunes,” “Huckleberry Hound,” “Tom & Jerry,” “Scooby-Doo,” “Yogi Bear” and “The Flintstones.” Brown outlined a four-pronged ini- I GAMEFLY IS OFFERING $25,000 GAME SWEEPSTAKES GameFly, the Culver City, Calif.-based online video game rental service, is celebrating its fifth anniversary with the “Ultimate $25,000 Gaming Setup” sweepstakes. Through October, gamers can enter the contest by signing up for a new GameFly account. Entrants can win hourly prizes such as a free GameFly subscription for a month, daily prizes of the Nintendo DS Lite gaming system, and the grand prize of $25,000 worth of gaming gear, as chosen by the recipient. Entry and complete rules are at www.gamefly.com/5yearsweeps. – Billy Gil tiative for the “Peanuts” brand. The handful of popular classics long available on DVD and videocassette, mostly seasonal specials such as “A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving,” “A Charlie Brown Christmas” and “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown,” will be remastered and released on DVD with newly created bonus features and new collectable packaging. First up is “Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown,” due Jan. 15, 2008, followed Feb. 26 by “It’s the Easter Beagle, Charlie Brown.” “We’re applying the same strategy we did with How the Grinch Stole Christmas, which yielded tremendous results at retail,” Brown said. Other “Peanuts” programs that aren’t as familiar will be packaged in “golden collection” sets similar to what Warner has done with its “Looney Tunes” library. See WARNER, Page 36 THE SPECIAL INTEREST RELEASE PIE BY CATEGORY 1997 - 2007* Through Sept. 30, a preliminary snapshot of the DVD release market shows that 18,199 of the 79,950 unique DVD titles that had reached consumers since the format’s inception in March 1997 were special interest. That’s 22.8% of all titles released on DVD. Within this catch-all category, the most popular is the instructional genre, taking a quarter of the releases in this group (4,716). Sports and fitness followed, with 1,981 and 1,656, respectively. And just to prove there’s something for everyone, 4.1% of all the special interest releases (753 titles) can be found in the magic category. — Ralph Tribbey All Other I 5,549/30.2% Comedy I 574/3.2% Travel I 708/3.9% Magic I 753/4.1% Biography I 1,133/6.2% I Instructional 4,716/25.9% I Sports 1,981/10.9% I Fitness 1,656/9.1% I War & History 1,184/6.5% * 2007 results through Sept. 30. I JAILED ‘GIRLS GONE WILD’ FOUNDER BOWS PR LINK Joe Francis, the beleaguered founder of the infamous “Girls Gone Wild” DVD brand, has added a link to his MeetJoeFrancis.com that he claims exonerates him from charges he used underage girls in his videos. Francis, who is in a Nevada jail serving a tax evasion conviction, is scheduled to be in a Florida courtroom Oct. 5 for a hearing regarding a federal suit brought by two women who allege they were filmed and included in videos without their consent. The link, “You Be the Judge,” claims to show Christina Brose and Brooke Patsolic consenting to the filming and release of their appearances. —Erik Gruenwedel I THIS WEEK’S RELEASE ACTIVITY FOR DVD Titles in Release Through Week Ended Sept. 28, 2007 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Total Net DVD Titles Announced and/or In Release Through Dec. 31, 2007 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77,187+466 77,979+384 Scheduled I THIS WEEK’S RELEASE ACTIVITY FOR BLU-RAY As of Week Ended Sept. 28 . . . . . Released I THIS WEEK’S RELEASE ACTIVITY FOR HD DVD Scheduled As of Week Ended Sept. 28 . . . . . Released October 7–13, 2007 Home Media Magazine http://www.homemediamagazine.com http://www.gamefly.com/5yearsweeps http://MeetJoeFrancis.com http://MeetJoeFrancis.com
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