Is BLu-Ray failing?
CNET's Don Reisinger thinks Blu-Ray is destined to fail. He points to last week's Nielsen report that shows Blu-Ray dropping in market share to DVD. He also points to an ABI Research report that says that only 23 percent of people are considering the purchase of a Blu-Ray player and more than half of those surveyed who no plans to buy one.
I too have been worried for a long time that Blu-Ray was not going to take off as the studios has hoped. The quality difference, while clearly there, is not as big as between DVD and VHS. Blu-Ray discs are more expensive, which works against you in a downturn economy. BD Java is expensive and difficult to program for which has led to far fewer compelling bonus features than promised. And BD Live so far is a gimmick. Who really wants to chat while while watching Sleeping Beauty? And even then, who calls their friends to make sure they are watching the same movie at the same time so they can do so? Its just goofy. If the studios want BD to take off, they are going to have to invest in better content to better differentiate the format...or go the other direction and make BD price competitive with DVD. If BD were at the same price, there might be a lot of people who would re-buy their movies to get the higher def. But what's clear for now is that BD is not exactly on fire.
Interestingly, I noticed that Disney is packing in the DVD of Sleeping Beauty with the Blu-Ray version of the title. This makes sense but also shows that they know there is an issue. People who buy kids movies want to be able to put them on in different places. In their kids room. Or the parents bedroom. On in the car. Or on the plane. Or at grandma's. Chances are 99% those places don't have a Blu-Ray player yet. So giving people a copy of the DVD is smart because that way they are not giving up the portability to get the resolution.
The bigger issue for the studios IMO is VOD. Even though VOD plays on Apple and the Internet are still relatively small, VOD options are exploding for consumers. Most people only watch most movies once any way, so once people start to catch on to VOD, you could see it take a serious bite out of DVD sales. Then the movie industry will have its version of the 99 cent downloadable song. 99 cent a la carte songs are killing the music industry far more than pirates. The labels just can't sell enough singles to make up for the $12.99 they used to get off you for the full album. VOD will present the same problem for the studios. If those $14.99-$24.99 disc sales turn into 99 cent to $4.99 rentals, that could create the same kind of pain for the movie studios.
I too have been worried for a long time that Blu-Ray was not going to take off as the studios has hoped. The quality difference, while clearly there, is not as big as between DVD and VHS. Blu-Ray discs are more expensive, which works against you in a downturn economy. BD Java is expensive and difficult to program for which has led to far fewer compelling bonus features than promised. And BD Live so far is a gimmick. Who really wants to chat while while watching Sleeping Beauty? And even then, who calls their friends to make sure they are watching the same movie at the same time so they can do so? Its just goofy. If the studios want BD to take off, they are going to have to invest in better content to better differentiate the format...or go the other direction and make BD price competitive with DVD. If BD were at the same price, there might be a lot of people who would re-buy their movies to get the higher def. But what's clear for now is that BD is not exactly on fire.
Interestingly, I noticed that Disney is packing in the DVD of Sleeping Beauty with the Blu-Ray version of the title. This makes sense but also shows that they know there is an issue. People who buy kids movies want to be able to put them on in different places. In their kids room. Or the parents bedroom. On in the car. Or on the plane. Or at grandma's. Chances are 99% those places don't have a Blu-Ray player yet. So giving people a copy of the DVD is smart because that way they are not giving up the portability to get the resolution.
The bigger issue for the studios IMO is VOD. Even though VOD plays on Apple and the Internet are still relatively small, VOD options are exploding for consumers. Most people only watch most movies once any way, so once people start to catch on to VOD, you could see it take a serious bite out of DVD sales. Then the movie industry will have its version of the 99 cent downloadable song. 99 cent a la carte songs are killing the music industry far more than pirates. The labels just can't sell enough singles to make up for the $12.99 they used to get off you for the full album. VOD will present the same problem for the studios. If those $14.99-$24.99 disc sales turn into 99 cent to $4.99 rentals, that could create the same kind of pain for the movie studios.
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