TALKBACK

Sony prices Blu-ray discs at $30

By Paul Sweeting -- Video Business,02/07/2006

FEB. 7 | Although Blu-ray Disc players might cost more than HD DVD players when the two high-definition formats launch later this year, movie prices are likely to be similar.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment president Benjamin Feingold said Tuesday that new release Blu-ray titles from the studio will carry a wholesale price to retailers of $23.45 while catalog titles will be priced at $17.95.

That should put the top cash register prices at about $34.95 and $29.95, respectively.

No other studio has yet announced retail prices for new releases, but Warner Home Video said recently that catalog prices for rival HD DVD releases also would be $29.95.

At one time, the new high-def formats were expected to command premium prices, but as the battle between the contending format camps has heated up, neither has wanted to give the other an edge in the marketplace.

The price ranges targeted by Sony and Warner are 15% to 20% higher than today’s DVD prices but comparable to movie prices at the time the current DVD format launched in 1997.

An announcement on street dates for the first wave of Blu-ray catalog releases is expected later this week.

Titles in the first wave include The Fifth Element, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Desperado, For a Few Dollars More (MGM), Hitch, House of Flying Daggers, A Knight’s Tale, Kung Fu Hustle, The Last Waltz (MGM), Legends of the Fall, Resident Evil Apocalypse, Robocop (MGM), Sense and Sensibility, Stealth, Species (MGM), SWAT, Terminator (MGM) and XXX.

Among the first new releases from Sony will be Underworld: Evolution, which is expected to hit DVD and Blu-ray in early summer.

The first HD DVD titles are slated to arrive on store shelves on March 28.

In an effort to ensure a strong impression at retail, availability of the first Blu-ray discs will be restricted to retail outlets that also carry Blu-ray hardware, Feingold said, a decision that could anger some video specialty retailers if the policy remains in place for long.

In recent weeks, prominent software retailers such as Netflix and Movie Gallery have issued statements saying they expect the new formats to give the rental market a shot in the arm and are looking forward to stocking both Blu-ray and HD DVD movies as soon as they’re available.

“Our intent is to create a critical mass of movies and displays at retail that will showcase the escalating availability and abundance of both [Blu-ray Disc] software and hardware in the marketplace,” Feingold said. “There’s no point in putting software into outlets that don’t carry the hardware in the beginning.”

The strategy is similar to the launch of DVD, although plans to limit software availability to hardware outlets quickly broke down as video retailers found ways to stock the new format.

Feingold said Sony would not rule out working with software retailers “who want to be strategically involved in the [high-def] format,” but added, “there needs to be a plan that will work economically for all parties.”

Hardware supplies also are expected to be tight at first.

“I think the biggest challenge will actually be hardware supply, because of the tight availability of lasers and chipsets,” Feingold said. “I think the hardware is likely to be on allocation in the beginning.”

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