Blu-ray bows with titles, hardware
Retailers jump street date on players, mix merchandising with HD DVD
By Jennifer Netherby and Susanne Ault -- Video Business, 6/21/2006
JUNE 21 | The second high-definition DVD team has taken the field.
As Samsung showed off the first Blu-ray Disc players to Los Angeles media on June 20, Sony introduced the first five movies on the Blu-ray format at retail.
Retailers said initial movie sales were slow without players on sale. Samsung will roll out a small number of players at 2,000 stores nationwide at retailers ranging from Best Buy and Circuit City to such high-end stores as Crutchfield when the players launch on June 25.
Some Los Angeles-area Best Buy and Circuit City stores, however, jumped street date, selling the Blu-ray players on June 20.
Samsung hasn’t given a number of its initial player shipment, beyond saying that it’s in the thousands. Samsung marketing manager Aaron Novak said retailers will get a BD-P1000 display unit and a couple other machines initially. The electronics company plans to quickly replenish players as they sell out at stores, which Novak said the company expects to happen fairly quickly.
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment shipped 15,000 units each of its initial slate of XXX, 50 First Dates, Underworld: Evolution, The Fifth Element, House of Flying Daggers and Hitch.
Going forward, Sony will make available all of its new releases on Blu-ray, SPHE worldwide president Ben Feingold said. The discs are in a slimmer box with a blue border, similar to HD DVD’s packaging, which has a red border.
Feingold said the studio would have sales information next week. “The hardware doesn’t hit until the 25th, and it’s hard in the sense that the retailers have been told not to put players on the floor,” Feingold said. “I think we’re going to have a nice beginning.”
Feingold said it was important for Blu-ray to launch during the summer because of the format war with rival HD DVD and to develop authoring and manufacturing capabilities ahead of the fourth quarter.
On June 27, Lionsgate will release its first batch of Blu-ray movies: Crash, Lord of War, The Punisher, Saw and Terminator 2. The company is shipping 7,000 to 10,000 units of each movie to retailers.
“We’re excited,” said Ron Schwartz, Lionsgate executive VP of sales. “The early adopter’s going to be an avid fan of the programming. In order for the launch to be successful, there needs to be software and not just hardware.”
For Terminator 2, the company will introduce its first new feature: While the commentary runs, the person speaking will pop up on the screen.
Other Blu-ray-supporting studios have yet to announce their release slates for the format, and they are expected to hold off until more players reach market through the summer.
There already appeared to be some confusion at retail Tuesday between the two high-def DVD formats.
A Los Angeles-area Best Buy store had Blu-ray movies set out with the HD DVD player that was on display in the electronics section. In another part of the section, there was a display Samsung Blu-ray player below a section filled with HD DVD movies.
At another Los Angeles Best Buy, a Samsung Blu-ray player was screening the Blu-ray House of Flying Daggers disc with all seven available Blu-ray titles displayed for sale. The HD DVD titles, which had been in that area previously, were sitting next to standard-definition DVD players. Near the back of the store, a Toshiba HD DVD player was set up for demonstration in a home theater experience room.
At a Circuit City store, there was a cardboard standee holding Blu-ray movies, which were mostly sold out by Tuesday evening. A store employee said it was full earlier in the day. When asked if they had HD DVD movies, he said Blu-ray was better because of its capacity and couldn’t find any HD DVD movies.
Circuit City also seems to be giving Blu-ray the edge on its Web site, which touts HD DVD as a better choice for those who have an HDTV that doesn’t support 1080p video and want a low-cost alternative. The site promotes Blu-ray as giving “the best home theater experience possible.”
Speaking at an industry conference Wednesday, SPHE senior VP of operations Walter Engler said the company is “less than satisfied with how [Blu-ray is] being presented. There’s a lot of confusion with signage. If consumers aren’t knowledgeable [of the format], they would totally be confused.”
Samsung is working with retailers to educate consumers.
The company is providing retailers with POP toppers and an acrylic display with brochures on the new format for consumers.
Samsung also is sending 50 field marketers out to stores to train employees on Blu-ray and help with the launch, and it has developed a Blu-ray informational disc that can be used to train employees or educate consumers.
Best Buy and Circuit City will each have Blu-ray endcaps that feature Blu-ray players and movies. Novak said Samsung has already logged a “substantial” number of pre-order sales through retailers.
Samsung will promote the players with an online ad campaign and print campaign in trade magazines and USA Today beginning Friday.
The company also has set up a site for consumers at Samsung.com/Blu-ray, which provides information on the players and Blu-ray.
In the first few days, Blu-ray disc sales were so-so, retailers said.
Customer service reps at some Los Angeles-area Best Buy stores and a Circuit City outlet noticed little in title sales on Tuesday. But all three outlets did sell one or two Samsung units apiece before street, suggesting customer demand for the format.
One mid-sized chain sold three units each of The Fifth Element and Underworld: Evolution, after ordering about 300 and 400 units of the respective Blu-ray titles.
Newbury Comics had not sold any of its Blu-ray stock as of late Wednesday, but officials there were nevertheless thrilled that Blu-ray backers opened up initial title distribution to all of retail. For HD DVD’s bow, Warner limited software delivery to those stores that also carried HD DVD hardware.
“At least with Sony and Lionsgate, they are allowing everyone to jump in at the same time,” Newbury buyer Ian Leshin said. “I was able to get in all of the first wave OK.”
Currently, Newbury is trying to effectively merchandise both formats by placing them in a front-of-store high-definition section. It’s aggressively pricing Blu-ray titles by docking them a few dollars less than rival electronics stores and mass merchants.
