Home Media Magazine - June 15, 2008 - (Page 16) COMMENTARY www.homemediamagazine.com THE BUZZ BY BO ANDERSEN, EMA PRESIDENT Color Me Blu; The Negative Hype Is Overblown f the prospects for future growth in the home entertainment industry were a color, what would it be? A few pundits see only shades of gray on their palettes. I see Blu. The media darts thrown at Blu-ray Disc recently are not aimed at the technology itself, but instead at the industry’s presumed expectations for Blu-ray’s growth. The assumption seems to be that Blu-ray’s only role is to wholly replace DVD and to do so no more slowly than DVD replaced VHS. In my view, that’s not right. Blu-ray’s initial role is to provide a capable, modern, even extraordinary supplement to DVD and satisfy the most discerning of consumers. In its time, Blu-ray will revitalize the promise of entertainment on optical discs and, as interactivity is ramped up, the format will assume the treasured place that DVDs have in homes worldwide. Let’s look at some of the negative vibe: I “The quality of DVD is good enough.” — That statement speaks to the strength of DVD more than to a weakness of Blu-ray. The fact that Blu-ray explores the higher end of the visual quality spectrum — and the audio is purely vibrant — offers something rich to those who demand this level of quality today and those who will in the future. For hard-goods retailers there is an easy question to answer: Do you want to offer a discriminating public the highest quality available or try to down-sell the I BLU-RAY’S INITIAL ROLE IS TO PROVIDE A CAPABLE, MODERN, EVEN EXTRAORDINARY SUPPLEMENT TO DVD AND SATISFY THE MOST DISCERNING OF CONSUMERS. consumer to a performance quality lower than an HD screen can display and lower than VOD will offer? I “Of the 30% of U.S. households with HDTVs, only slightly more than half actually get HD content from their TV service providers.” — While this may indicate that the demand for pure high-def is only moderate today, the statistic suggests an opportunity, not a barrier. It identifies a pool of 15 million flatscreeners who today might respond to a dedicated message like: “A $250 Blu-ray player or a $199 PS3 can give you the highest definition you can get on the products you most want to see in HD — great movies, extraordinary games.” Moreover, the HD flatscreeners may be waiting for Blu-ray 2.0. This is, after all, a tech-savvy group of early adopters. I “DVD upconverters are cheap and good enough.” — Upconverting DVD players can and should be marketed by retailers as “almost good enough” (but, remember, you get what you pay for), and the remainder of retailers’ message should be that Blu-ray is even better. The trick is to turn this into an appetite for true-Blu HD. I “You can’t play the Blu-ray in the kids’ room or the car.” — You couldn’t play DVDs on the kids’ VCR either, The Entertainment Merchants Association is at www.entmerch.org but you can play the kids’ DVDs on the Blu-ray player. There’s a whole lot more compatibility here than in most format changes. I predict that some car models in 2010 will come with Blu-ray players. I “The Blu-ray pricing premium is too high.” — Who doubts that the industry needs a premium product, premium priced based on an enhanced value for consumers? Whether a $15 price premium is the right amount is not the issue. The issue is whether digital copy, BD Live and the extraordinary promise of advanced interactivity can command the premium. Who doubts that it can and will? Let’s take a look at the most likely Blu-ray buyers: younger, affluent males with families. Where does a young, relatively affluent family with kids most likely go to fill their house with high-def cinematic fun? Pay-per-play VOD? Retailers must satisfy the high-def demands of this group. Indeed, one of the most significant metrics to watch is how quickly BD unit sales exceed VOD buys. Finally, the promise of Blu-ray interactivity cannot be understated. Mating motion picture content and cinematic quality with online enhancements, plot adventures, or outcome-determinative options will capture the best of video games and movies together on a shiny disc. The sky’s the limit, and we all know what color the sky is. READERS’ FORUM I The following letters are in response to John Latchem’s editorial “Can Blu-ray Capitalize on Catalog Upgrades?” (HM, May 25-31), in which he questioned whether consumers will want to replace their catalog DVDs with new Blu-ray versions: O N L IN E PO L L RESUL T S I Question Do you plan on converting your DVD collection to Blu-ray? with the lower-cost HD DVD technology, but, alas — to use an analogy — instead of a slower, fuel-efficient, lower-cost, subsonic aircraft, we got a faster, fuel-gulping, higher-cost, supersonic Concorde. But, just like the Concorde, which is no longer flying, it is possible that Blu-ray is not the right product for the time. We need to remind ourselves that the executives in this I am not format agnostic, but, instead, definitely favored industry are only human, and not infallible gods. HD DVD because of ease of conversion of duplicating lines, higher yield, and thus a lower retail sales price. Most Peter Bock of my HD DVD purchases were, in fact, catalog upgrades, West Linn, Ore. including The Bourne Identity, Field of Dreams, For Love of the Game, The Lake House, Notting Hill, Pride and Prejudice, A Room With a View, Sneakers and Top Gun, all of which I had already owned on DVD. While I agree with the premise [of your article] that with One of the films I would dearly love to have seen released the current low overall market penetration of Blu-ray acin HD is Out of Africa, and I am saddened that Sydney Pol- counts for the low numbers of each title, I disagree with lack passed on before his masterpiece could be released. your statement DVD quality is sufficient for most titles. Your comment, “As far as catalog goes, DVD quality Virtually all of our store’s customers have stopped buying is probably sufficient for most titles. The range of films inherently low-quality DVDs, which are marginally better actually improved in HD is probably limited to special-ef- when upconverted. Most of our customers own several Blu-ray fects blockbusters such as ID4,” caused me to pause and players and buy exclusively Blu-ray from us as soon as a title is reflect on how much 20- to 30-year-old classics such as released, whether it is a catalog title or new release. Our average Out of Africa and Somewhere in Time could potentially customer owns more than 200 Blu-ray titles and is frustrated be improved in HD. I would really appreciate it if you by the lack of every title being released in a Blu-ray version. could do some follow-up in-depth research and share Based upon several surveys we did in-house with our customwith your readers more about the technical limitations ers, we could have each customer owning 800-plus Blu-ray of re-releasing classics in HD. It would certainly help titles if only the studios would release every title in Blu-ray. set realistic expectations. It is the typical chicken-and-the-egg situation that affects It would also confirm in my mind that the current Blu-ray every new revolutionary technological advance. If you short-tailed marketing strategy (a few high-volume block- release all of them, they will buy. busters) is being driven at least partly by catalog upgrade limitations. Thomas J. Kazalski I had hoped that a long-tailed marketing strategy (many Video Visions, Inc. low-volume, niche-market movies) would dovetail nicely Union, N.J. I Answers A: Yes 31.6% B: No 34.7% C: Only a few select titles 33.7% Go to www.homemediamagazine.com and vote on this week’s question. Limitations on Upgrading? Blu is Better 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. Join Us Online: www.homemediamagazine.com Visit our Web site to participate in discussion boards and weekly polls on the latest industry issues. Home Media Magazine June 15–21, 2008 http://www.homemediamagazine.com http://www.entmerch.org http://www.homemediamagazine.com http://www.homemediamagazine.com
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