Home Media Magazine - November 11-17, 2007 - (Page 9) www.homemediamagazine.com MENU FROM THE EDITOR BY THOMAS K. ARNOLD, PUBLISHER www.homemediamagazine.com As the Blogosphere Turns PUBLISHER & EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Thomas K. Arnold EDITOR IN CHIEF Stephanie Prange EDITORIAL Managing Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Angelique Flores Senior Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Erik Gruenwedel Senior Reporter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chris Tribbey Assistant Managing Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Latchem Associate Editors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Billy Gil, Kyra Kudick Contributors. . . . . . . . . John Gaudiosi, Anne Sherber, Fred Topel, Ralph Tribbey, Holly J. Wagner ART Art Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Melbert Sebayan Graphic Designer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Charles Park RESEARCH Market Research Assistant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kelly Burner ADVERTISING 800/338-6700, FAX 714/338-6712 Advertising Sales Representative . . . . . . . . . . . . John Boezinger 714/338-6704 Advertising Sales Representative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Julie Savant 714/368-1020 Advertising Sales Representative . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kurt Wohlman 714/338-6749 Group Administrative Coordinator. . . . . . . . . . Jennifer Guerena Business Analyst . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Joni Wu For reprints, call 800-290-5460, ext. 100 or HomeMediaMagazine@reprintbuyer. com For direct-mail lists, call Ilene Schwartz, Kroll Direct, 216/371-1667 FAX 216/371-1669 ilene@krolldirect.com an Silverberg, I feel for you. For several days around Hal- imminent switch to Blu-ray only. My story was only on our loween, you and I were the unwitting flash points in the own Web site; it was not yet in print, nor had it been posted on raging format war between Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD, the the Hollywood Reporter site. And yet within one day, a Google two high-definition disc formats that are vying to succeed DVD. search showed it had been picked up 1,055 times — a number What happened was this: Silverberg, Warner Home Video’s VP of that after a week had grown to more than 12,500. high-definition media, was at the Blu-ray Festival in Hollywood. He Let me set the record straight, for my sanity and for Dan’s. Neither told me and several online journalists that Warner was re-evaluating Dan nor I ever said Warner would likely go Blu-ray only. I never its strategy of releasing titles in both formats, and meant to imply it. If I had, it surely would have may go with only one after the fourth quarter. The THE FEVER PITCH OF THE been a blazing headline, not a few sentences studio had been waiting for consumers to settle WORLDWIDE BLOGOSPHERE tucked away near the end of my story. And yet the format war. But with both sides digging in WAS SUCH THAT AN the fever pitch of the worldwide blogosphere was their heels and pumping out increasingly cheap INNOCUOUS STATEMENT such that an innocuous statement became an players and more and more product, something COULD SETTLE THE FORMAT earth-shattering development that could settle the simply has to give, Silverberg intimated — lest WAR, ONCE AND FOR ALL. format war, once and for all. the format war continue to drain resources the People, people! Read my stories, but don’t studios could expend toward battling consumer indifference, the read into them. Around the office I’m known as Mr. Simple No. 1 obstacle to mass adoption of HD media. and Direct: I say what I mean, nothing more, nothing less. So to Because Silverberg was speaking at a Blu-ray event, and reiterate: Warner may ditch its dual-format strategy sometime because he also said Warner, at least for now, was “commit- after the fourth quarter and go exclusively HD DVD or Blu-ray. ted” to the Blu-ray format, his comments — as laid out in a Then again, it may not. The one thing I promise — if there is story posted on our Home Media Magazine Web site — were any change, you’ll read it here first. immediately misconstrued by an army of online bloggers and forum-posters as indicating Warner was contemplating an Thomas K. Arnold’s e-mail address is tarnold@questex.com MARKETING Marketing Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kristina Kronenberg 714/338-6743 Marketing Assistant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kaitlyn DeWaard Online Manager. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Renee Rosado IN THIS ISSUE NOV. 11-17, 2007 / VOL. 29 / NO. 45 News …………………………… 10 Time Warner has increased revenue — as well as a new CEO; Movie Gallery is allowed to continue with store closures; Blockbuster signs on with Facebook. CALENDAR I TV DVD AWARDS Home Media Magazine presents the fourth annual TV DVD Awards. The best TV DVD releases of the past year, as selected by a national consumer vote, will be honored in 16 categories, including best series by decade, best complete-series set and best children’s series. Nov. 12 Hyatt Regency Century Plaza, Los Angeles info: tvdvd.dvdconferences.com PRODUCTION Production Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bonnie Ling Production Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Justin-Nicholas Toyama 714/338-6765 Assistant Production Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Brady Gallardo >> HIGH-DEF OFFICES 714/338-6700, 800/371-6897, FAX 714/338-6710 homemediamagazine@questex.com 201 East Sandpointe Ave., Suite 500 Santa Ana, CA 92707-8716 Chris Tribbey, Senior Reporter 818-788-8616, FAX 818-530-2486 16130 Ventura Blvd. #570 Encino, CA 91436 News …………………………… 12 Warner signs a deal to distribute Paramount and DreamWorks Animation content in China; Image plans a theatrical release; Genius up its credit. News ………………………… CREDIT Credit/Collections Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ron Wright Sr. HD DVD backers say the price cut on Toshiba players puts player penetration near 500K; a secret shopper pooh-poohs the Wal-Mart Toshiba sale. CIRCULATION For subscriptions, please go online to www.homemediamagazine.com For current single copy, back issues or CD-ROM, call 866/344-1315 or 615/377-3322 for outside the U.S. Audience Development Manager. . . . . . . . . . . Sarah Joy Obaña Commentary …………………… 16 Assistant managing editor John Latchem says DVD exclusive extras shouldn’t interfere with content. >> ELECTRONIC DELIVERY I 2008 INTERNATIONAL CES Produced by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), CES is the largest annual trade show servicing the consumer technology industry. The show has brought together the global consumer electronics industry for more than four decades. CEA represents more than 2,100 members from the fields of design, development, manufacturing, distribution and integration of consumer electronics products. Jan. 7-10 Las Vegas, Nev. info: www.cesweb.org BUSINESS QUESTEX MEDIA GROUP INC. President & CEO: Kerry C. Gumas; Executive Vice President & CFO: Tom Caridi; Executive Vice President: Robert S. Ingraham; Executive Vice President: Tony D’Avino; Executive Vice President, Corporate Development: Claudia Flowers; Vice President & General Manager: Don Rosenberg; Vice President, Digital Media: Seth Nichols; Vice President, Human Resources: Diane Evans © 2007 Questex Media Group Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including by photocopy, recording or information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use, or the internal or personal use of specific clients, is granted by Questex Media Group, Inc. for libraries and other users registered with the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Dr., Danvers, MA 01923 phone: 978-750-8400 fax 978-750-4470; call for copying beyond that permitted by Sections 107 or 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law. For those not registered with the CCC, send permission request in writing to questexpermissions@reprintbuyer.com or call 800-494-9051 ext. 100. TV DVD ………………………… 18 Parody episodes of “Family Guy” and “South Park” are getting their own DVDs. News ………………………… Panelists at the iHollywood Digital Conference sound off on planning for a digital film world; Xbox Live adds ESPN content. Pipeline ………………………… 32 El Cid marches to DVD; Lee Corso talks baby DVDs. I WONDERCON 2008 WonderCon is returning to San Francisco for its 22nd anniversary. Northern California’s biggest comic book conference already is being planned, and several guests are already slated to attend, such as J. Michael Straczynski and Tim Sale. More than 20,000 people attended WonderCon 2007. Feb. 22-24 Moscone Center South, San Francisco info: www.comic-con.org/wc Printed in the U.S.A. Cine Mercado ………………… 20 Research ……………………… 34 See how stores are placing and marketing Latino Spider-Man 3 from Sony Pictures, lands at the top DVDs; Laguna releases novelas unedited. of the DVD sales and rental charts. KidVid ………………………… 24 See our list of upcoming kid friendly titles. Top 20 DVD Sellers ……………………… 34 Top 20 Rentals and Top 10 Charts ……… 35 Reviews ………………………… 26 Just Announced ……………… 38 Does Rescue Dawn awaken viewers to the horror of warfare? Does The Rocket take off? Universal sets out Eastern Promises on DVD; Fox hails Resurrecting the Champ. Home Media Magazine November 11–17, 2007 http://www.homemediamagazine.com http://www.homemediamagazine.com http://tvdvd.dvdconferences.com http://www.homemediamagazine.com http://www.cesweb.org http://www.comic-con.org/wc
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