Home Media Magazine - January 19-25, 2009 - (Page 10) COMMENTARY THE BUZZ BY ERIK GRUENWEDEL, SENIOR EDITOR www.homemediamagazine.com Lighting a Fyre to Hollywood F aced with a recession-inspired fickle consumer, adult entertainment is hedging its bets on a hybrid of home entertainment options. The CE industry said revenue would fall 0.6% in 2009 — and Hollywood studios should take note. The porn industry increasingly caters to an indifferent consumer, more interested in easy access and quantity than quality of the product. Adult DVD sales fell 22%. Both industries embrace Blu-ray Disc as heir apparent to standard DVD, with Digital Playground and Zero Tolerance each pledging more BD releases this year. CE manufacturers Panasonic, Pioneer, Samsung, LG and Sharp are promising high-definition televisions and Blu-ray players equipped with internal widgets capable of receiving third-party content from the Internet, notably Netflix movie streams. Though sticking to adult, FyreTV is not opposed to discussing its patents with the CE industry and Hollywood studios, according to spokesperson David Jones. “The adult industry embraces any new distribution method,” Jones said. “In mainstream entertainment, however, it’s all about controlling new [technology].” He said efforts by Netflix and Hulu to customize user Enter FyreTV, a Miami-based start-up that in 2008 beta-tested a subscription-based proprietary set-top box experiences represent a promising start by studios and that delivers DVD- and HD-quality adult content direct- technology companies to expand distribution. “Studios do seem very possessive of their content,” ly from the Web to the TV. Now upgraded to wireless for easier access in the bedroom, the “BoXXX” device he said. Perhaps he’s right. If studios loosened the reins is free and comes with 100 minutes of licensed content on their content, third parties could create improved monthly based on a basic $9.95 subscription. What differentiates FyreTV from other set-top boxes distribution vehicles so that consumers could get the is its search function. Users can customize video clip content they want — mainstream and otherwise. searches of the entire database based on 35 keyword Erik Gruenwedel’s e-mail address is egruenwedel@questex. metatags with the remote control. “THE ADULT INDUSTRY EMBRACES ANY NEW DISTRIBUTION METHOD. IN MAINSTREAM ENTERTAINMENT, HOWEVER, IT’S ALL ABOUT CONTROLLING NEW [TECHNOLOGY].” FYRETV SPOKESPERSON DAVID JONES READERS’ FORUM I The following letter is in response to Chris Tribbey’s column “Black Friday Deals Aren’t Just for Early Birds” (HM, Nov. 23-29, 2008), in which he says plenty of holiday deals can be found online and beyond Black Friday: T H EY SA ID IT “OUR PROMOTIONAL STRATEGY WAS NOT ENOUGH TO UPSET THE IMPACT OF A DIFFICULT ECONOMY, TWO MAJOR SNOW STORMS AND VERY LATE CONSUMER SHOPPING.” Jim Litwak, president, Trans World, on a reported drop in the company’s holiday sales Shopping Online Leaves Out the Little Guys I totally agree with your take on the whole hot Friday rush. We are a small business in a small town. The whole fighting over gifts on Black Friday thing is totally nuts and shows you what the mind-set of the majority is becoming. But I wish you would not have encouraged people to shop online. The more people shop online, the more small businesses like us will go out of business. Owning a small franchise will be a thing of the past, and we will be left with [only] the large big-box stores. These big-box stores will be the very ones that are selling online. This may not sound like a big deal to some people, but most big-box stores will not set up shop in small towns with less than 10,000 people in them. The people in these smaller towns will be left with a choice of driving to a larger town to shop at a big-box store or having to do all of their shopping online. Personally neither sounds good to me. James Babb De Queen, Ark. I The following letter is in response to Chris Tribbey’s article “Europe May Not Get Cheap BD Players, Yet” (HM, Dec. 7-13, 2008), in which Screen Digest research reports that less-expensive Blu-ray players probably wouldn’t hit European shores by the holidays: Discs since local retailers started selling more discs for less than 20 EUR in October. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and some other blockbusters even had pricetags below 15 EUR for a few days. According to sales numbers published by the BDA, there were 1.6 million Blu-ray Discs sold in Germany in 2008. Karsten Serck Bayreuth, Germany I The following letter is in response to Billy Gil’s article “Studios Lay Out Holiday Sets” (HM, Nov. 30-Dec. 6, 2008), in which he details the more elaborate gift sets studios trot out for the holidays, as well as cost-cutting and eco-friendly measures going into some of those sets: Cost-cutting Measure Also Cut Disc Protection I know I’m not the only one who has become increasingly frustrated by the “premium” DVD sets with packaging that doesn’t protect the product, and often leaves scratches on the discs. DVDs, unlike Blu-rays, don’t contain a protective layer, so why are studios using packaging where discs slide into folders, or across cardboard? This increases the risks of scratches EVERY time a disc is removed and replaced, and some of these sets even come scratched! The packaging looks nice, as I’m sure their focus groups told them, but the studios need to pay more attention to creating a functional package and less time creating oddly shaped sets that don’t fit on a shelf and scratch the discs. If the studios are going to ship sets that scratch discs then they need to have a hassle-free program to get unscratched discs into the hands of consumers, and make it easy for consumers to contact them. Bravo to Walt Disney Studios Home Video for putting their consumer hotline number on every DVD they release, saving the consumer the time and frustration of tracking down a phone number or e-mail address online. Please studios, make functional packaging that protects the discs, not something that destroys them. It’s brutal. Gord Lacey TVShowsOnDVD.com “WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT DOWNLOADING CONTENT, CHANCES ARE PRETTY GOOD THAT IT IS BEING DONE ON A TEMPORARY USAGE BASIS. WHEN YOU WANT TO OWN SOMETHING, THERE IS NOTHING LIKE A PHYSICAL DISC.” Andy Parsons, SVP of advanced product development for Pioneer Electronics We Want to Hear From You! Please send letters to: Editor, Home Media Magazine 201 East Sandpointe Ave., Suite 500 Santa Ana, CA 92707 E-mail: HomeMediaMagazine@questex.com Fax: 714.338.6712 Include name, business address (city and state) and telephone number. Letters are subject to editing. What about Online Sales? I don’t know where Screen Digest gets its numbers but you can already get a Samsung BD-P1500 here in Germany, including tax and shipping, for 160 EUR at some online retailers in Germany. And amazon.co.uk sells the device for 151 GBP in the United Kingdom. That’s almost the same value for a European, like a sub-$200 player from the United States. You can see a real trend in sales numbers of Blu-ray Join Us Online: www.homemediamagazine.com Visit our Web site to participate in discussion boards and weekly polls on the latest industry issues. 10 Home Media Magazine January 19–25, 2009 http://www.homemediamagazine.com http://www.homemediamagazine.com http://amazon.co.uk http://www.TVShowsOnDVD.com
Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Home Media Magazine - January 19-25, 2009 Home Media Magazine - January 19-25, 2009 Contents News News News News Commentary Reviews Research Top 20 DVD Sellers Top 20 Rentals and Top 10 Charts Just Announced Home Media Magazine - January 19-25, 2009 Home Media Magazine - January 19-25, 2009 - Home Media Magazine - January 19-25, 2009 (Page 1) Home Media Magazine - January 19-25, 2009 - Home Media Magazine - January 19-25, 2009 (Page 2) Home Media Magazine - January 19-25, 2009 - Contents (Page 3) Home Media Magazine - January 19-25, 2009 - News (Page 4) Home Media Magazine - January 19-25, 2009 - News (Page 5) Home Media Magazine - January 19-25, 2009 - News (Page 6) Home Media Magazine - January 19-25, 2009 - News (Page 7) Home Media Magazine - January 19-25, 2009 - News (Page 8) Home Media Magazine - January 19-25, 2009 - News (Page 9) Home Media Magazine - January 19-25, 2009 - Commentary (Page 10) Home Media Magazine - January 19-25, 2009 - Commentary (Page 11) Home Media Magazine - January 19-25, 2009 - Reviews (Page 12) Home Media Magazine - January 19-25, 2009 - Reviews (Page 13) Home Media Magazine - January 19-25, 2009 - Reviews (Page 14) Home Media Magazine - January 19-25, 2009 - Reviews (Page 15) Home Media Magazine - January 19-25, 2009 - Top 20 DVD Sellers (Page 16) Home Media Magazine - January 19-25, 2009 - Top 20 DVD Sellers (Page 17) Home Media Magazine - January 19-25, 2009 - Top 20 Rentals and Top 10 Charts (Page 18) Home Media Magazine - January 19-25, 2009 - Top 20 Rentals and Top 10 Charts (Page 19) Home Media Magazine - January 19-25, 2009 - Just Announced (Page 20) Home Media Magazine - January 19-25, 2009 - Just Announced (Page 21) Home Media Magazine - January 19-25, 2009 - Just Announced (Page 22) Home Media Magazine - January 19-25, 2009 - Just Announced (Page 23) Home Media Magazine - January 19-25, 2009 - Just Announced (Page 24)
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