Celebrate in standard-def
August 24, 2007

Despite the fact that Shrek the Third and Transformers are coming out on HD DVD and Ratatouille, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer and Live Free or Die Hard are coming out on Blu-ray, neither of these new formats is going to be the “gotta have it” gift for the 2007 holiday season. Perhaps high-def buyers will push out past early adopters to the leading edge of the mass market, but true mass will not be touched. Studios and consumer electronics companies have assured that with one too many formats, relatively high hardware prices and too little consumer education as of yet about either.

For most retailers, the focus is not going to be on truly effectively selling HD DVD and Blu-ray, but on how to merchandise these two new SKUs at all during a season that promises more big box-office performers than this industry has ever seen on DVD—the format that is already in roughly
90 million American homes.

High-def disc formats hold huge untapped potential for growth in the long run. But for the rest of this year, the upside is in good old DVD, and retailers know it.

The bottom line on Paramount and DreamWorks Animation’s surprise announcement last week that they will support HD DVD exclusively going forward is that it will be a factor in prolonging the format war. All the hubbub last week about the two studios’ motivation and how much they were paid to go exclusive isn’t really important to either retailers or consumers. They are exclusive, at least for now, and that does slow Blu-ray’s momentum, at least for now.

One Blu-ray supporter mused to me last week about a potential “consumer and creative” backlash against Paramount and DreamWorks for denying them the opportunity to see their favorite films in Blu-ray. Creative, maybe, if Michael Bay’s quickly recanted midnight ramblings are any indication, but consumers? Not enough consumers are in the Blu-ray game yet to create a backlash.

Posted by Marcy Magiera on August 24, 2007 | Comments (1)