Three studios link up to InterActual

Buena Vista, New Line, Warner in DVD-ROM deal.

By Ann Donahue -- Video Business, 9/25/2002

SEPT. 25 | BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.--Buena Vista Home Entertainment, New Line Home Entertainment and Warner Home Video are supporting a push led by InterActual Technologies to enable viewers to access DVD-ROM content through DVD players.

Currently, a viewer has to insert a DVD into a DVD-ROM drive on a PC in order to view bonus features via the Internet. The DVD Forum, led by a group headed by InterActual president and CEO Todd Collart, is working to create specifications for enhanced DVD players that would sport Web connectivity.

Toshiba's Hisashi Yamada, who also serves as the senior representative of the DVD Forum, said the group and San Jose, Calif.-based InterActual have spent 1½ years in the effort to develop those specifications. Collart said an early test version of the new DVD player should be operable by the end of the year.

According to data supplied by InterActual, there are 19.4 million DVD-ROM households in the U.S. They are expected to grow to 31.3 million by 2003.

DVD-ROM content includes "Script to Screen" features, where a viewer can read along with the script as the movie plays, and updated cast and crew biographies. Having DVD players linked to the Internet would present studios with a greater audience for promotional possibilities, Collart said.

"With DVD-ROM, you can keep the product renewable," he said. "You can also create links to promote other features, such as broadband downloads of new trailers or e-commerce links to stores."

Collart, appearing at the Digital Hollywood conference, said his company has worked with all the studios since developing the DVD-ROM technology five years ago. But he wanted to emphasize the alliance with New Line, Buena Vista and Warner because he considers them to be the "leaders" in the DVD-ROM field.

The studios have the option of working with other companies for DVD-ROM.

Michael Mulvihill, VP of content development with New Line, said the studio wants to use DVD-ROM technology to leverage its special Infinifilm releases. Austin Powers in Goldmember, the next Infinifilm release, is due Dec. 3 in stores.

"We can offer access to an exclusive online community," he said. "We're finding that special features are driving the market, and DVD-ROM is one of the most important of those features."

Jim Wuthrich, VP of worldwide interactive marketing at Warner Home Video, agreed.

"The possibilities of this format are endless once DVD video can be blended with related, dynamic Internet content and enhanced ROM data for playback on a consumer DVD player," he said.

Terry Leeder, VP of sales and marketing for Cirrus Logic, put it more succinctly: "You can have a 1½-hour commercial."

Wuthrich said WHV has long realized the attraction of DVD-ROM content. When The Matrix was released, the studio created a virtual theater where after inserting the DVD into their computer, fans could go to a Web site and watch additional elements of the movie.

"It was the world's largest screening room," he said.

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