BD Live gains traction among consumers

Sony's network nears 1 million visits from Blu-ray owners

By Susanne Ault -- Video Business, 12/5/2008

DEC. 5 | BD Live is showing evidence of gaining traction with consumers.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment’s BD Live network is nearing 1 million visits from consumers worldwide, according to the studio.

“As we approach 1 million visits to our BD Live [pages] worldwide, it’s clear that consumers are engaging with this game-changing interactivity and are defining BD Live as that killer application,” said Rich Marty, Sony VP of new business development.

Meanwhile, Warner Home Video is preparing for as many as 100,000 BD Live users to participate in a Dec. 18 “community screening” of The Dark Knight—the studio’s first BD Live title—with director Christopher Nolan.

On Dec. 18, Dark Knight owners will be able to watch the movie at the same time as Nolan, who will be on hand to communicate via text. After registering the Dark Knight title through their BD Live-capable players, fans will be able to send in questions via Web-enabled cell phones or laptops. The resulting answers will scroll across TVs during the screening.

Universal Studios Home Entertainment’s live Guillermo del Toro chat for Hellboy II: The Golden Army last month was the industry’s first real-time fan-filmmaker exchange over Blu-ray. The studio hasn’t said how many people logged on for the chat, only that more than 400 questions were submitted.

Depending on the various characteristics of Sony’s discs, consumers are browsing through features found on specific title Web pages and/or on the studio’s general BD Live interface, Marty said. To date, Sony has released 50 titles with Web interactivity since launching BD Live in April with its first titles Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story and The Sixth Day.

Studios are already working to improve the BD Live experience, which just got underway in earnest in April to coincide with the PlayStation 3 becoming BD Live compatible.

One of the most popular features on Warner’s first Web-enabled title on the late HD DVD format, Blood Diamond, was audience opinion polling, with which people picked their favorite film genres and other subjects. So, with Dark Knight, Warner added many features that ask for fan feedback. Consumers will be able to rate their favorite trailers as well as rate user-generated video commentary.

Sony uses surveying in order to adjust its BD Live features to best satisfy consumers. The studio also refreshes trailer and on-screen promotional content on its various BD Live Web pages every two to four weeks, depending on the title.

“With the ability to collect direct consumer feedback via our BD Live surveys, we are catering the technology to what interests the users [in terms of] exclusive content, chat, high-def trailers, peer-to-peer activities, etc.,” said Marty.

He also is pleased that many BD Live samplers come back to enjoy more Web features.

“We can also see from our weekly download data that we are actively building a BD Live community with new and return users,” Marty added.