Adding life to BD Live

Studios to experiment with new activities, no registration

By Susanne Ault -- Video Business, 1/26/2009

JAN. 26 | VB NEXT: After employing basic BD Live interactive features in 2008, most studios will ratchet up the consumer appeal of the new technology this year. In 2009, look for BD Live features that are better integrated, easier to use, more plentiful and more glitzy than last year.

Lionsgate plans to launch a BD Live portal, dubbed Lionsgate Live, sometime this year. Viewers will get a consistent experience with the portal, at which they will be able to access games, ringtones and filmmaker chats.

“In our process to create this portal, using focus groups and grassroots research, we found that BD Live is in a very new stage,” says Miguel Casillas, senior VP of DVD/Blu-ray Disc production at Lionsgate. “If the initial experience with a feature wasn't immediately intuitive to people, they'd just move on. Users weren't saying they didn't like BD Live, because uber-fans want to get close to the films they love. But it just needs to be easy and fast.”

With the bow of Lionsgate Live, the studio will offer a simplified version of its Web blogging feature, Molog, which previously has attracted mostly tech-savvy early adopters.

“We want to include an option for a more quick entry approach into its use,” says Casillas.

Related Content Data Base president Zane Vella, who has worked on BD Live interactivity for 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment's The X-Files: I Want to Believe and Warner Music Group's Neil Young Archives, Vol. 1 (1963-1972), agrees that studios fear scaring away potential BD Live fans with complicated features. Going forward, Vella says to expect more titles that don't require people to register before viewing BD Live content.

Currently, studios ask consumers to type in unique codes included in Blu-ray packages before accessing titles' Web interactivity. Additionally, Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment's Sleeping Beauty asked people to scroll through more than 100 pages of legal disclaimer before they could view the film's BD Live content.

“There is going to be more experimentation with what you can do with BD Live before registration,” says Vella. “It will give people more access. Registration can be a hurdle to a seamless consumer experience.”

Star power should be another 2009 BD Live trend, he added, as features involve more name talent. For the release of Neil Young Archives, the singer is personally choosing which pictures to upload onto the package's career timeline. After street date, people will be able to periodically replay the title and check for new content that Young has added to the timeline.

At Disney, the focus is on ensuring that all of the studio's forthcoming Blu-ray titles pack in the following four BD Live features: games, real-time chatting, shopping rewards and movie scene mail. The studio wants to make its Blu-ray titles more of an obvious step up from their standard-definition DVD counterparts. Disney first rolled out these four features with its Oct. 7 release of Sleeping Beauty.

“The general trend from Disney is that, while we will have some bonus material on the [standard] DVDs, we want the bulk of the special features on the Blu-ray release,” says Lori MacPherson, general manager of Disney, North America. “We want people to understand the value and inherent interactivity of Blu-ray.”

High School Musical 3 and Pinocchio, streeting Feb. 17 and March 10, respectively, are among upcoming Disney Blu-ray titles to feature this four-pronged BD Live approach.

To underscore its 2009 Blu-ray drive, Disney will run a TV/online campaign, “Feed the Machines,” through January. The spots encourage people who received Blu-ray players over the holidays to consider Disney titles as their next purchase.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will launch its first BD Live real-time chat program, “Cinechat,” on Feb. 3 release Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist. The studio hopes to improve upon other chat offerings by soon including the ability to allow Blu-ray users to communicate to one another while watching two different Sony BD Live movies.

“We want to push the envelope and constantly refine the BD Live experience,” says Rich Marty, Sony VP of new business development.

« Back | Print