Maybe Indies and BD Can Get Along
March 17, 2008

Image Entertainement has signed on with Sony DADC for its Blu-ray authoring services. At first glance, this seems like a a no-duh move. Sony DADC accounts for the bulk of BD physical production these days, so if you want to be in the BD business, there's a strong chance you'll need to cozy up to this company.
But BD's relatively higher production costs, versus standard DVD and HD DVD, has generated plenty of question marks as to how indies will, or even just can, take to Blu-ray. Arguably, costs eventually will drop as more replication companies launch BD capabilities, and create some market competition for Sony DADC.
Financial terms of Image's and Sony DADC's deal were not disclosed. But some sort of favorable deal had to have been worked out before Image could have signed onto it. Image can't be swinging money around these days, after several quarters of red ink. Also, Image has been trying to financially recover following the collapse of its planned merger with ThinkFilm owner BTP Acquisition Company.
Image's greenlight of a Sony DADC partnership hopefully bodes well for the format. We need both major studio content and indie content on BD to maximize the format's reach with consumers.
Upcoming Image BD releases include Before the Devil Knows You're Dead on April 15 and The Air I Breathe on May 6. And on May 20, Image will street Short Circuit and the musical Company on BD.
Image is also planning for an aggressive slate of  music BD titles, including Chicago/Earth, Wind & Fire: Live at the Greek and Heart: Alive in Seattle.

Posted by Susanne Ault on March 17, 2008 | Comments (0)