Blu-ray growing, but needs better retail display
HOME MEDIA EXPO: Panelist calls for BD Live demo stations
By Susanne Ault -- Video Business, 6/25/2008
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JUNE 25 | LAS VEGAS—Analysts painted a mostly rosy picture for Blu-ray Disc consumer traction at a Wednesday Home Media Expo session here, but they acknowledged such adoption hurdles as strong satisfaction with DVD and poor retail presentation of the format.
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2008 Home Media Expo
Today’s early Blu-ray owners form a limited demographic group, most likely male, under 34 and earn a relatively high income, according to Nielsen Home Entertainment. But Nielsen VP David Hoffman said he approaches the statistics with optimism, explaining that 40% of this group is over 35 and many of them have families.
“It’s not just the young, single, tech geek,” said Hoffman. “There is a broader base for this than one might think.”
Additionally, retailers would be wise to support Blu-ray in stores, Hoffman said.
Nielsen finds that Blu-ray owners buy more non-DVD items, contributing to an overall higher cash register ring than standard DVD owners. Currently, the average standard DVD basket at retail is $92.93, typically including discs as well as $19.79 worth of other store products. In contrast, the average Blu-ray basket at retail is $162.36, featuring Blu-ray discs and $61.53 in additional products.
NPD Group analyst Russ Crupnick acknowledged less than 10% of surveyed HDTV owners intend to purchase a Blu-ray player in the next six months. But even that much should be considered admirable at this early stage of the format, where software and hardware pricing is still significantly higher than standard DVD.
“Purchase intent is there, and it’s not all that horrible,” said Crupnick. “We are looking at it like the glass is half full. Trends are low, but they are going in the right direction.”
Although adoption is happening at a respectable pace, session participants admitted that adoption could be sped up at retail. Crupnick advocated for retail to set up interactive BD Live demonstrations to steer people away from better trafficked gaming sampling stations, as well as to drive home differences from standard DVD. BD Live represents the debut of networked features on home entertainment movie software, including multi-player gaming and real-time chatting.
“You can walk into a Best Buy and see people congregating around the Wii kiosk, and then you look over at the Blu-ray screen and nobody is around,” said Crupnick. “I think BD Live can be used as a differentiator [from standard DVD] and help people give Blu-ray a look.”
Tom Adams, president of Adams Media Research, hopes studios further distinguish Blu-ray from standard DVD by offering digital copy exclusively on Blu-ray copies. Currently, many studios are affixing embedded film copies on both Blu-ray and standard DVD copies.
“Digital copy is a killer app,” said Adams. “It would increase Blu-ray’s appeal above and beyond DVD.”
Patrick Wahlquist, representing a consumer perspective from his membership with the Home Theater Forum, complained about uneducated consumer electronics sales clerks. Many don’t seem to know about all the key components required to receive true high-definition video, such as the purchase of an HDMI connection cable.
“That’s what is scary to me, that customers will say it doesn’t work this way, and that will slow down” adoption, said Wahlquist.
He was also unsure about BD Live interactivity ever becoming a major selling point. Most HTF members have been so far underwhelmed by Web-enabled features included on releases.
“The studios aren’t even sure what to do with it yet,” said Wahlquist. “GPS on Cloverfield? That’s fun for about five minutes.”
Even with some consumer hesitation, the analysts were mostly upbeat that Blu-ray would prove attractive. Once early adopters start showing off Blu-ray players to friends, the technology should naturally grow in popularity.
“I think consumer word-of-mouth can do as much if not more than anything done at Best Buy,” said Crupnick.
