Home Media Magazine - December 7-13, 2008 - (Page 4) NEWS Sony Inks With Korean Distributor By Erik Gruenwedel SUPPLIER Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has signed a deal with United Entertainment Korea Co. Ltd. (UEK) to distribute DVD and Blu-ray Disc titles in South Korea. Peter Woo, former managing director of shuttered (last September) Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Korea, heads UEK, which features several former Sony staffers, including sales director Sang Do Lee. The move underscores the studio’s commitment to the region, despite reports counterfeit DVDs and piracy have halved the home entertainment market to less than $300 million since 2002. Indeed, all major studios, with the exception of Warner, have exited the market. “Korea remains a healthy market for home entertainment,” Woo said. www.homemediamagazine.com Blockbuster Enters Ticket Biz Inks deal with Live Nation to sell concert tickets at stores By Erik Gruenwedel RETAIL Seeking to become a one-stop shop for all things entertainment, Blockbuster Dec. 2 signed a deal with Live Nation to be the music concert promoter’s exclusive retail ticket outlet. Under terms of the three-year agreement, beginning in 2009 Live Nation will sell concert tickets exclusively through 500 corporate-owned Blockbuster locations nationwide. Select blocks of tickets will be accessible only at Blockbuster for the first four hours made available. General tickets will be available until supplies last. Live Nation CEO Nathan Hubbard said internal research concluded that a “vast majority” of music fans BRIEFS I EMA OFFERS POS TECH STANDARDS, NEW EVENT The Entertainment Merchants Association (EMA) has published threshold standards for “benefit denial technology,” which would allow for the disabling of DVD and video game usage until the point of sale — rendering stolen discs useless. The standards are a result of “Project Lazarus,” an EMA effort to gather key retailers, home video divisions and video game publishers to examine the possibilities of DVD and video game benefitdenial technology. “Project Lazarus” also is developing a cost-benefit analysis for the technology. “The deployment of benefit denial technology would reduce shrink in video game and DVD stocks, increase open marketing of video games, reduce packaging, decrease labor costs, improve consumer access to video games and Blu-ray Discs, and make the categories more attractive for additional retail channels,” said Bo Andersen, president and CEO of EMA. The standards are available at http:// www.entmerch.org/lazarus_standards. pdf. In other news, the EMA has joined the Content Delivery and Storage Association (CDSA) and Media-tech Association (MTA) to co-produce “The Future of Packaged Media ‘09,” which will be presented Feb. 3-4, 2009, at the Hilton Los Angeles in Universal City, Calif. Highlevel executives from the packaging media supply chain will attend the two-day conference and discuss topics concerning packaged media. – Billy Gil found Blockbuster to be a logical destination for retail ticket sales. Blockbuster will manage and operate all aspects of the ticket transactions. Financial considerations, including fees or percentage of ticket sales Blockbuster might receive, were not disclosed. “Not only will this agreement drive hundreds of thousands of customers to our stores, it represents another step in the transformation of Blockbuster into a brand that offers the most convenient access to entertainment,” said Jim Keyes, chairman and CEO of Blockbuster, in a statement. Movie Gallery Seeks An SEC Filing Delay By Erik Gruenwedel RETAIL Movie Gallery said it would not be able to file quarterly financial results for the period ended Oct. 8, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Wilsonville, Ore.-based No. 2 DVD rental service, which emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May, said changes in management and financial leadership had made meeting the filing date impossible without incurring “unreasonable effort and expense.” Gallery, which parted with auditor Ernest & Young LLP for new accountant Burr, Pilger & Mayer LLP, has not formally filed an annual financial report for fiscal year ended Jan. 6, 2008, in addition to quarterly reports for periods ended April 6 and July 6, respectively. Separately, seven new senior executives received more than 500,000 shares of unrestricted common stock collectively. The $10 shares become unrestricted after Dec. 31, 2010, and are exercisable based on the executives attaining performance-based goals. The executives, who include Pamela Schneider, EVP, general counsel and secretary; Lucinda Baier, EVP and CFO; Sherif Mityas, president Champions on DVD and COO; Cliff Torng, EVP, chief marketing officer; Clarence Gabriel, president and CEO; Caroline Rogers, EVP, human resources; and Craig Miller, EVP, chief information officer, collectively hold nearly 1.9 million shares of Gallery’s common stock. The Cinema De Lux in Philadelphia hosted a red carpet premiere and DVD and Blu-ray Disc release celebration for 2008 World Series film Phillies vs. Rays Nov. 24. The DVD streeted Nov. 25 from Shout! Factory; the Blu-ray debuts Dec. 16. Pictured are (L-R): MLB Productions’ Elizabeth Scott, Phillies president David Montgomery, Shout! Factory’s Melissa Boag, Phillies pitcher Ryan Madson and Phillies GM Ruben Amaro Jr. Photo by: Rosemary Rahn, Phillies I VIDEO GAME REPORT CARD GIVES RETAILERS ‘B+’ Retailers earned high marks as The National Institute on Media and the Family (NIMF) released its 13th Annual MediaWise Video Game Report Card, awarding retailer ratings enforcement a ‘B+.’ NIMF in their assessment said, “retailers have improved their record of keeping age-inappropriate content out of children’s hands.” The retailer ratings enforcement score was up from last year, when NIMF gave retailers a ‘D’ for ratings enforcement, specialty retailers a ‘B’ and rental stores an ‘F.’ The rating was based on secret shopper findings that the Federal Trade Commission released earlier this year. They found retailers turned down children under the age of 17 from buying ‘Mature’rated video games 80% of the time, up from 58% from a secret shopper survey the previous year. The report can be found at http://www. mediafamily.org/research/2008_video_ game_report_card.pdf. – Billy Gil TRENDS FOR DVD PRODUCT SUPPLIERS SELECTED CATEGORIES: 2005 - 2008* It’s all but certain the total of new DVD releases this year will be about 15% lower than in 2007. Based on that number, you would think that companies are exiting the business. However, when you look at the major product categories, the number of active suppliers is actually up across the broad. New theatrical arrivals on DVD are about the same — there are 79 this year, as opposed to 81 last year. Music and special interest, which are showing some pretty substantial declines in title output, have more suppliers. — Ralph Tribbey DVD Product Category - Active Suppliers 2005 Special Interest 545 Music, Opera and Stage Musicals 256 Direct-to-DVD, Feature Films 160 Children’s Non-Feature 123 New Theatrical 63 TV-on-DVD 67 Theatrical Catalog (pre-1997) 84 2006 552 300 154 100 79 65 84 2007 465 224 147 100 81 72 69 2008* 477 245 173 104 79 75 71 * 2008 results through Nov. 30. I RELEASE ACTIVITY FOR DVD Titles in Release Through Week Ended Nov. 28, 2008 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Total Net DVD Titles Announced and/or In Release Through March 31, 2008 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93,545+267 93,915+211 I RELEASE ACTIVITY FOR BLU-RAY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . As of Week Ended Nov. 28 Released 971 Scheduled 117 4 Home Media Magazine December 7–13, 2008 http://www.homemediamagazine.com http://www.entmerch.org/lazarus_standards.pdf http://www.entmerch.org/lazarus_standards.pdf http://www.entmerch.org/lazarus_standards.pdf http://www.mediafamily.org/research/2008_video_game_report_card.pdf http://www.mediafamily.org/research/2008_video_game_report_card.pdf http://www.mediafamily.org/research/2008_video_game_report_card.pdf
Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Home Media Magazine - December 7-13, 2008 Home Media Magazine - December 7-13, 2008 Contents News News High-Def News Electronic Delivery News TV DVD Reviews Pipeline Research Top 20 DVD Sellers Top 20 Rentals and Top 10 Charts Just Announced Home Media Magazine - December 7-13, 2008 Home Media Magazine - December 7-13, 2008 - Home Media Magazine - December 7-13, 2008 (Page Cover1) Home Media Magazine - December 7-13, 2008 - Home Media Magazine - December 7-13, 2008 (Page Cover2) Home Media Magazine - December 7-13, 2008 - Home Media Magazine - December 7-13, 2008 (Page 1) Home Media Magazine - December 7-13, 2008 - Home Media Magazine - December 7-13, 2008 (Page 2) Home Media Magazine - December 7-13, 2008 - Contents (Page 3) Home Media Magazine - December 7-13, 2008 - Contents (Page 4) Home Media Magazine - December 7-13, 2008 - News (Page 5) Home Media Magazine - December 7-13, 2008 - News (Page 6) Home Media Magazine - December 7-13, 2008 - News (Page 7) Home Media Magazine - December 7-13, 2008 - High-Def News (Page 8) Home Media Magazine - December 7-13, 2008 - High-Def News (Page 9) Home Media Magazine - December 7-13, 2008 - Electronic Delivery News (Page 10) Home Media Magazine - December 7-13, 2008 - Electronic Delivery News (Page 11) Home Media Magazine - December 7-13, 2008 - TV DVD (Page 12) Home Media Magazine - December 7-13, 2008 - TV DVD (Page 13) Home Media Magazine - December 7-13, 2008 - Reviews (Page 14) Home Media Magazine - December 7-13, 2008 - Reviews (Page 15) Home Media Magazine - December 7-13, 2008 - Reviews (Page 16) Home Media Magazine - December 7-13, 2008 - Reviews (Page 17) Home Media Magazine - December 7-13, 2008 - Reviews (Page 18) Home Media Magazine - December 7-13, 2008 - Reviews (Page 19) Home Media Magazine - December 7-13, 2008 - Pipeline (Page 20) Home Media Magazine - December 7-13, 2008 - Pipeline (Page 21) Home Media Magazine - December 7-13, 2008 - Top 20 DVD Sellers (Page 22) Home Media Magazine - December 7-13, 2008 - Top 20 DVD Sellers (Page 23) Home Media Magazine - December 7-13, 2008 - Top 20 Rentals and Top 10 Charts (Page 24) Home Media Magazine - December 7-13, 2008 - Top 20 Rentals and Top 10 Charts (Page 25) Home Media Magazine - December 7-13, 2008 - Just Announced (Page 26) Home Media Magazine - December 7-13, 2008 - Just Announced (Page 27) Home Media Magazine - December 7-13, 2008 - Just Announced (Page 28) Home Media Magazine - December 7-13, 2008 - Just Announced (Page Cover3) Home Media Magazine - December 7-13, 2008 - Just Announced (Page Cover4)
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