High-def battle of words
By Marcy Magiera -- Video Business, 3/30/2007
MARCH 30 | The high-def “format war” is actually two wars—or maybe one war fought on two fronts. In either case, there is the core fight between HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc for sales—actual dollars changing hands and players being installed in homes—and then there is the clash of words—the P.R. campaign, the skirmish for spin—the battle that both sides are hoping will be a key to winning the whole shebang.
In the conflict that really matters—the format war, if you will—the sides are closely matched. Blu-ray has much more exclusive content, but through February, the two camps had sold virtually the same number of software units—about 650,000 for HD DVD and 675,000 for Blu-ray. HD DVD did start out ahead, so this even status reflects a big recent surge for Blu-ray. The Sony format has many more players in homes than HD DVD because of the PlayStation 3. Attach rates—the number of titles bought for each player—however, remain much higher for HD DVD, suggesting it is a more popular movie playback solution. The number of titles set for release are about the same for each side through the first half.
Both sides are dropping hardware prices, which the studios hope will sell more software.
By any objective measure, this “war” is too early to call and essentially a tie at this early stage.
In the war of words, however, it’s advantage Blu-ray.
Last week, Sony put out a press release touting 100,000 copies of Bond pic Casino Royale shipped on Blu-ray in two weeks, a sales mark it took standard DVD 11 months to hit.
The HD DVD camp promptly answered by announcing 70 titles debuting on the format through July and recapping Toshiba’s hardware price reductions.
Bond, definitely the sexier announce, doesn’t win the format war, but it does win the war of words for the week, building on an admirable Blu-ray track record.
The Blu-ray camp has been declaring the format war over—Sony president David Bishop’s done it, Fox chief Mike Dunn’s done it, and so has Disney head Bob Chapek, for months. Saying it hasn’t made it so, but it has made plenty of people—the press, analysts and consumers—think maybe there’s something to what they’re saying.
HD DVD has taken the more reasonable, understated approach, pointing to the number of titles released on each side, attach rates and the like, when maybe what they really need is a little bluster.
And they need to get it before the Blu-ray folks have an announcement to make about the performance of Disney’s two Pirates installments in May. Like Jack Sparrow, those Blu-ray marketees know how to spin a yarn.
