Movies, TV go places
DVD FOR DUDES: Studios increasingly offer content in digital forms
By Jennifer Netherby -- Video Business, 7/21/2008
JULY 21 | DVD FOR DUDES: Over the last two years, Hollywood studios have undergone a mindset change. Rather than hold tight to their content, they’ve adopted the new mantra to make movies and TV shows available to consumers when, where and how they want it.
For guys with the latest video gadgets—the male 18-34 demo who also tend to be the earliest adopters of new technology—that means a mini-explosion in the number of TV shows and movies playable on those shiny toys.
Count on just about every summer blockbuster—from Universal Studios Home Entertainment’s Wanted and Paramount Home Entertainment’s Iron Man to Warner Home Video’s The Dark Knight and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment’s The X-Files: I Want to Believe—to be out this year on Blu-ray Disc and as a digital download that can be purchased through iTunes or other services. Fox, Warner and other studios also will likely add to the DVD or Blu-ray of most major releases a digital copy that can be transferred to iPods and other devices.
Studios are keeping mum on what new extras will be included on holiday Blu-ray titles, but they are working to incorporate BD Live and Java programming into the bonus features to take the format to the next level.
“What we’re doing now is going out and meeting with people who gain pleasure from movie experiences, from interactive experience on the Web and gaming,” says John Richards, head of creative services for Warner.
Richards says Warner is watching which features consumers respond to on its Blu-ray releases and developing new features around that. One of the studio’s unexpected hits was 300’s Buddy List feature, which allowed users to select their favorite scenes from the film and share them with friends.
“That became a very used piece, which was surprising to me,” Richards says.
Paramount plans to incorporate BD Live and gaming features into many of its fall releases, says Chris Saito, VP of worldwide high-definition DVD marketing.
“People want to connect with the film and also have that sort of competition,” he says.
Studios have already started to announce the Blu-ray releases of high-profile catalog for the second half of the year, including Transformers, The Godfather: The Coppola Restoration and Top Gun from Paramount; six James Bond classics from MGM including Dr. No, Die Another Day and From Russia With Love; Risky Business, L.A. Confidential and Cool Hand Luke from Warner; and the Starship Troopers trilogy from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
In addition, studios are positioning DVD and Blu-ray in the digital world by adding transferable digital copies of movies to discs.
Fox is positioning itself as a leader in the digital space, including digital copies for the iPod and Windows-compatible players on a handful of recent DVD and Blu-ray releases, including Family Guy Presents Blue Harvest, Alien vs. Predator: Requiem and Juno. The studio says more than 300,000 digital copies were downloaded from discs through June 12, and for most releases, more consumers downloaded the digital copy than bought a digital download of the movie from an Internet service.
By this fall, Fox plans to include digital copies on nearly every new release and some catalog. Fox eventually wants to offer digital copies that also will play on the Microsoft Zune and the Sony PlayStation Portable.
“Digital copy puts packaged media in the center of what’s happening digitally in the marketplace,” says Steve Feldstein, Fox senior VP of marketing communications. “You’ve got a one-stop shop in this product for any possible use in the home. … Consumers want choice, and this gives it to them.”
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, Lionsgate, Sony, Universal and Warner also have begun to test digital copies. Warner, which was one of the first studios to try digital copy with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix last year, plans to offer digital copies on most new releases, including such TV shows as Supernatural and such catalog titles as Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, streeting July 29. Warner will include digital copies of some movies on its DVD or Blu-ray, while others will be a free download for those who bought the movie on disc.
“Within a couple of years, all of our films will be available in digital distribution,” says Jim Noonan, Warner senior VP of strategic promotions and communications. “Right now, we’ve got thousands of movies in outlets that offer that service. Our disc may well be one more window to that.”
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