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Media
Information > Media DVD Coverage 
Archive
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| Updated November 16, 2004 DVD
NEWS DIGEST
1 -
The Day After Tomorrow (Widescreen) FoxVideo
Both Buena Vista Home Entertainment president Bob Chapek and former Warner Home Video head (and now HD-DVD supporter) Warren Lieberfarb are urging the industry to adopt a unified next-generation DVD format. Speaking at the DVD Forum's U.S. Conference, held in Santa Monica, Chapek said that the marketing more than the technology will be the deciding factor in the consumer’s mind should there be a next-generation format war. He warned that two competing formats could drive the 30 million HD-enabled households to cable or satellite for their high-definition home viewing, “potentially crippling the next-generation format.” “Studios have a chance to keep the wild ride of DVD packaged media going for another 10 years,” he said, but they have to do it without “utterly confusing or aggravating the consumer.” Lieberfarb used the example of DVD-Audio vs. SACD to illustrate how format conflict can be marketplace disaster. While they competed, he said, “P2P filesharing became the next-generation boom. The music industry missed out by procrastinating and debating all the wrong issues.”
In the near future, consumers may be able to pick up Hollywood's latest DVDs when getting a Happy Meal. Fast-food giant McDonald's is looking at installing self-service DVD kiosks from DVDPlay into restaurant locations nationwide over the next several years, according to DVDPlay CEO Jens Horstmann. McDonald's has been running a trial with 157 of the machines in 107 Denver-area restaurants. Grocery giants Albertsons and Safeway have signed deals that could lead to machines in, respectively, 3,000 and 3,500 locations each. Even rental outlets (and DVDPlay competitors) like Blockbuster will invest in the machines. In the United Kingdom, MSN has kicked off a DVD rental delivery service in conjunction with Video Island, said company CEO Saul Klein. Next month, broadcaster ITV will roll out a movie club with the company, he said. "It's like NBC" in Britain, he added. Meanwhile, several cable companies and movie studios are experimenting with direct delivery of movies to PCs and TVs.
Retailers previously specializing in everything but entertainment are now trying to make a splash in home video. Non-traditional retailers still comprise just 4% of overall new-release DVD sales, according to NPD research. But suppliers believe the specialty segment represents a distribution growth opportunity. "We actually went to Sears about a year ago," recounted Pat Fitzgerald, executive VP sales and distribution at Buena Vista Home Entertainment. "They are the No. 2 or 3 retailer when it comes to selling big-screen TVs. For home entertainment companies, it made sense for them and for us to look for ways to expand both of our business models." "It's the DVD phenomenon," said Mark Blatchley, Scholastic Entertainment's manager of worldwide video marketing. "We might not be a huge revenue generator for distributors, but we'll get ancillary sales. We're in front of 32 million kids."
The TV-DVD business is expected to hit $2.3 billion in sales this year, with 30 percent increases predicted each year through 2008. The optimistic forecast reflects the skyrocketing trend of consumers collecting both newer shows as well as classics on DVD. TV-DVD sales through the first nine months of 2004 are running 65 percent ahead of the same period last year. In 2003, total TV-DVD sales reached $1.4 billion, an industry executive said. DVD Release Report, an industry newsletter, expects more than 400 TV DVD boxed sets to be released next year -- approximately the same number released this year.
Sales of consumer DVD recorders will surpass DVD players in 2006, with devices using the DVD-Ram format making up the majority of sales to consumers, according to consumer research group Understanding & Solutions (U&S). The company said that over 40 million DVD recorders will be sold around the world in 2006, and that sales of DVD-Ram units this year will grow by 116 per cent over 2003, continuing to outstrip other formats in sales. U&S claimed that DVD-Ram currently maintains a 55 per cent share of the DVD recorder deck market in the US, Japan and western Europe, holding roughly twice the share of the next most popular format.
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