Home Media Magazine - May 18-24, 2008 - (Page 1)

MAY 18–24, 2008 Blockbuster Posts Q1 Profit, Plans to Test Digital Kiosks kiosks. He said the tests would be conducted By Erik Gruenwedel RETAIL Blockbuster Inc. is beginning to test over a six- to 12-month period. Keyes, who has made digital distribudigital kiosks that will let consumers tion a cornerstone of his retail strategy download movie rentals to portable INSIDE along with a possible acquisition of devices and memory sticks — the latI Circuit City Circuit City Stores, admitted the kiosks ter playable on a PC and television. up for sale, lets were in the early phase of development The company reported first-quarter Blockbuster but said he believed Blockbuster could (ended April 6) profit of $45.4 million, look at books, be a first mover in the space. compared to a loss of $49 million dursee page 6. “We are ahead of the technology ing the same period the prior year. and consumer on that initiative,” During an investor call, CEO Jim Keyes said Blockbuster had signed a deal Keyes said. “It is probably two to three years with MCR Corp., which will manufacture the See BLOCKBUSTER, Page 24 BRINGING DIGITAL ENTERTAINMENT TO YOU >> HIGH-DEF ‘Beauty’ In Blu I CABLE COMPRESSION LOSS MAY BE BLU-RAY’S GAIN ‘Sleeping Beauty’ to awaken With Web-connected BD Live By Thomas K. Arnold PRODUCT The folks at Walt Disney Studios are out to forever change the way we view movies at home. In October, Disney will release the firstever Blu-ray Disc of one of its animated classics, Sleeping Beauty, and offer viewers a full palate of high-tech viewing options that simply aren’t possible with standard DVD. Thanks to BD Live technology, which connects to the Internet, viewers will be able to pop Sleeping Beauty into their Blu-ray Disc player and right away get a customized version of the famed Sleeping Beauty castle that serves as a backdrop for the menu. The sky behind the castle will reflect See ‘BEAUTY’, Page 23 INSIDE >> Poll Results Murky on Blu Few plan to buy BD players. >> On Display Panasonic debuts new BD players. PAGE 10 CABLE’S QUALITY QUESTION C By Holly J. Wagner able companies have been among high-definition disc’s most aggressive competitors. If you can get movies and TV shows in high-definition from your cable company, especially on-demand, why buy Blu-ray at all? But cable HD may not be all it’s cracked up to be. The problem is THE BIG PICTURE highly compressed digital channel signals transmitting multiple layers of programming, which maximizes cable company bandwidth, but sometimes at the expense of picture quality. The high-def miracle looks less than miraculous on some cable channels, while others come in crisp and clean. Not so with Blu-ray, which may present a marketing opportunity for its proponents. Cablers “send standard-def channels on the same signal as the highdef channel, crowding and sometimes choking the pipe,” said video guru Joe Kane, video engineer and author of Video Essentials, Digital See CABLE, Page 24 Home A R C H Media RESE MAR KET S HAR E 5% as of 5/11/08 I Blu-ray I DVD >> ELECTRO N IC DELIVERY INSIDE Consumers spent $124.6 million on DVDs for the week Blu-ray vs. DVD Sales* Consumers spent $6.56 million on Blu-ray Discs for the week MPAA Targets Movie Sharers The Motion Picture Association of America sues five people for alleged file sharing. Confab Mulls Copyright Law Up 5.52% from the previous week. * Top 20 unit volume 95% Down 7.32% from the previous week. Source: Home Media Research New York’s On Copyright 2008 held discussions on guarding content. Mr. & Mrs. Smith PAGE 11 NEWS Warner Home Video re-enters a revenue-sharing deal with Rentrak that would make rentailers destroy most used copies of Warner films. PRODUCT Shout! Factory dials up another re-release of a cult TV show with Sports Night: The Complete Series — 10th Anniversary Edition. RESEARCH Warner Home Video sent the right message to viewers with P.S. I Love You, which was the No. 1 seller and renter this week. Page 9 Page 12 Page 18

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Home Media Magazine - May 18-24, 2008 Contents News TV DVD Reviews Pipeline Research Top 20 DVD Sellers Top 20 Rentals and Top 10 Charts Just Announced

Home Media Magazine - May 18-24, 2008

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