Sony’s Bishop delivers positive message at PEVE
Keynote addresses strong industry, growing new formats
By Cindy Spielvogel -- Video Business, 3/13/2009
MARCH 13 | Despite the current downturn in the global economy and copious negative press surrounding DVD sales, the home entertainment industry is still a strong $50 billion business worldwide with ample opportunity to grow around new formats, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment president David Bishop said in a keynote address March 12 at the Screen Digest PEVE Digital Entertainment 2009 conference in Paris.
“Our industry remains strong and continues to be a critical revenue stream for our parent companies,” Bishop said.
Though he acknowledged that global DVD unit sales fell just over 2% in 2008 over 2007, “the Blu-ray installed base continues to grow,” he said, sharing Screen Digest figures showing 37 million Blu-ray discs were sold worldwide last year.
Bishop discounted media coverage questioning the prospects for the continued health of physical media, but he encouraged the industry to work actively to keep the business strong.
“Rather than take a passive approach, it’s essential that each of us clearly communicates the important role that entertainment continues to play in consumers’ lives,” he said.
“DVD and Blu-ray continue to be the premier way to enjoy great entertainment at great value—certainly an important consideration when watching the family budget,” he said. “Plus our industry is also developing a variety of new digital entertainment options that have the potential to create additional sales, rentals and subscriptions.”
Noting that U.S. HDTV penetration is now approaching 50%, Bishop said the growth is “driving consumer demand for more [high-def] media, which underscores why our industry is transitioning quickly from DVD to Blu-ray.”
Citing statistics from a Smith-Geiger study for the Digital Entertainment Group, “nearly 30% of HDTV owners in the U.S. already own a Blu-ray Disc player,” Bishop said. He added that applications such as BD Live are attracting interest, drawing “3 million visitors to our Sony Pictures BD Live screens to date.”
Other technology that Sony is involved in is showing promise, he said, such as digital copy, multi-product “Pop” vending machines and kiosks, mobile and other areas, including a hybrid movie-game disc for use with PlayStation 3. And a “Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem” is being developed to create an industry standard to allow consumers “to purchase digital content from multiple online retailers and to play it on multiple devices and platforms from different manufacturers,” he said.
