RSSBlu-ray could be Blockbuster's bailout
By Tim Conneally | Published March 9, 2009, 2:10 PM
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The impact on Blu-ray
Because of its guaranteed availability policies and large display space, Blockbuster is a voracious consumer of discs. If it were to close all but its franchise stores, there would only be 18% of its current storefronts left. Without all those shelves needing to be filled, Blockbuster would be able to scale back its stock, and a huge chunk of Hollywood's revenue would be lost.
A great deal of that loss would impact Blu-ray, at the worst possible time.
In 2007, Blockbuster started carrying Blu-ray Discs in 1,700 of its company-owned stores, and later expanded that to include all of its corporate outlets. The worldwide production of Blu-ray Discs in 2008 was more than 200 million units, with the majority (82%) going to so-called "pipeline fill". Blu-ray sales for the year, according to Nielsen VideoScan, accounted for about 8% of all the disc-based movies sold.
At the Home Media Expo last summer, Blockbuster's Jim Keyes said, "We think the rental model can help Blu-ray," convinced that the high purchase price of the discs would discourage sell-through and compel users to rent instead. Going by the previously cited Adams Research figures, Keyes' prediction could shape up to be correct. However, the Blu-ray rental business is not improving fast enough. "If we're slow in doing this, all it does is stimulate demand for digital," Keyes said.
Theoretically speaking, if 8% of Blockbuster's total stock was Blu-ray, reflecting the conditions of the market at large, it would be worth $64 million dollars. At the six-dollar revenue sharing cost of DVDs, that would amount to 10.4 million Blu-ray titles from Blockbuster, or about 5% of all Blu-ray discs produced. However, if the Blu-ray industry got on board with Keyes' suggestion, Blockbuster's volume purchasing behavior could trigger a Blu-ray surge even beyond its current expectations.
As it is, Blockbuster is already attempting to branch out in new directions where it is at an infrastructural disadvantage, and a strong push in Blu-ray would depend on its current purchasing power. Unfortunately, with the employment of Kirkland and Ellis, and the impending debts coming due in August, Blockbuster appears to be in no position to increase its spending on much of anything.
Blu-ray.
PPppffffhhhh.
Who cares?
Outside of the PS3 gang & a minute number of a/v enthusiasts no-one cares.
BTW that Nielson number of Blu-ray taking 8% of the total sales market is a lie (based on their cherry-picked BS 'of the top 20 best selling movies').
In fact Blu-ray in the USA took a true 4.45% of the market in 2008
http://www.videobusiness...CA6627437.html?nid=3511
With HD TV taking off much later elsewhere it's likely that besides Japan everywhere else is seeing much lower Blu-ray sales.
Factor in the tanking global economy this year (and probably next and possibly beyond too) and it's pretty obvious Blu-ray is screwed.
Enjoy the new Laserdisc/Betamax whilst you can; already we can see flash drives will be offering the promise of much smaller size, 6 times the bandwidth and up to 2tb in capacity within the next 2 years.
They made a big mistake not reaching agreement with the DVD Forum & taking so long on their stupid and very short-sighted format war and now it's way too late.
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|My local library is now lending BR Discs! And with NetFlix and if I have to drive somewhere, I will go to the local $1 kiosk DVD Rental machine at Stop n Shop. Blockbuster isn't relevant anymore. If the economy wasn't so bad, they could linger probably a little longer, but now it's sink or swim.
http://afewtips.com
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|Hardly matters - the new era of trick-up poverty is going to kill Blu-ray anyway. Not going to convince enough people to spend thousands on a new player and another mountain of movies for better pixels.
The move from VHS to DVD was a 'no duh', but the BR bird just ain't gonna fly. BR buyers, enjoy the new betamax while it lasts. Streaming will be the next real revolution. Save your money the rest of you.
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|You go ahead and stream while comcast and other providers cap your bandwidth thus limiting the number of movies you can stream. Plus, streaming still has yet to reach 1080i at a decent rate. Full 1080P would take far more bandwidth than any of these services can stand to support for the forseeable future.
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|The answer to streaming caps?
Watch the cable and telco networks launch their OWN HD download sites exempt from the caps!
Duh!
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|I can't wait for Netflix to get a bigger catalog in their HD Instant Streaming catalog. I find it much more convenient to just browse Netflix and hitting play on my 360 controller. It's cheaper too at $8.99 for unlimited movies/shows and I don't have to drive to blockbuster to pay $5 to rent (I think, it's been years since I last went), or paying about $20 to $30 for new Blu-Rays. Yeah, I could rent them from Netflix, but they charge $1 more and I have to wait about 3 days to receive the disc.
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|(whats wrong with laserdiscs? ld players were better made anyway :)
Blockbuster killed Circuit City so not sure what side of the coin to look thru.
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|Nothing at all wrong with laserdiscs. They never gained significant market penetration beyond videophiles due to their cost.
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|Hmm....
http://en.wikipedia.org/...ile:LDDVDComparison.jpg
I wonder if that's the reason?
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|What is Blu-Ray? Reminds me of LaserDisc...
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|Unfortunately, until Blu Ray movies can be copied easily and duplicated like DVD's for 20 cents, it will never truly catch on.
People are so spoiled from being able to make copies of any movie or CD, they don't like being told a movie they bought can't be backed up or shared.
I only know one person besides myself who actually buys BD movies. I rent most of them from Netflix and only buy movies I really, really like.
p.s. I can't wait for Blockbuster to fold completely. The music stores tanked along time ago and the movie rental stores should only last another year or so. They sell obscenely overpriced candy and popcorn to help the bottom line. Screw these a******s.
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|which fanboys are you talking about? I know a ton of people who are buying Blu-ray.... Blu-ray is catching on if you like it or not. the only ones who don't like it are the ones who can't afford it. prices for both players and discs are coming down. Blu-ray is catching on everywhere in the world especially in Japan and Europe. Blockbuster pushing forward in Blu-ray is a smart move, every time I'm at my Blockbuster, new releases on Blu-ray are always checked out. I haven't bought the crappy DVDs for the longest time I can remember. Technology is always moving forward and I only see DVDs becoming like the VHS, digital d/ls catching on in 5 years or so which gives BD plenty of time to be mainstream...
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|Whatever you say, fanboy.
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|I'm speaking the truth. All you idiots out there can spread all the FUD you want about Blu-ray. If you can't tell much difference between DVD and Blu-ray, get your eyes check cause that's SIX times the resolution, a lot more then VHS to DVD. For those of you who think Blu-ray is still thousands of dollars and discs are at $40, you obviously have no clue about the technology. Go with your inferior version of the movies on Digital downloads or the crappy DVD quality. Blu-ray will only close the gap in sales with DVD. When The Dark Knight came out, 25% were Blu-ray sales, hmmmm so who was saying no one was buying Blu-ray???
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|lol no kidding he sounds more like a commercial than an opinionated person.
If Blorays going to save Blockbuster.. whos is going to save bloray.. let me guess Exon
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|Only thing your truely missing is music and perhaps some pictures and you'd be publically labled as either a Sony insider / sales person or an official Bloray commerical (only thing your missing is the blue box that says "because this is such a new technology [translated to] STUPID SUCKER go buy Laser disk not all features will work with all players]
Bloray's going to die all because of Sony's inability to provide a decent product at a affordable price.
Thanks anyways
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|You know "a ton of people who are buying BR"???
Gee, at 200lb each, that comes to 10 people.
You may indeed know ALL of the people buying BR!
After all, thats's about the number of Adam Sandler BR titles sold!
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|All Blockbuster needs now are hordes of folks who live and die to see the same 3 Adam Sandler movies over and over!
Like BR has a sufficient catalog of titles worth watching...
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|According to all the fanboys around here...no one is buying Blu-ray so I am suprised to see Blockbuster pushing them.
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|HD-DVD is on it's way back people. You wait. I still got my Xbox HD-DVD add-on plugged in.
All of you will tremble before the glory of HD-DVD!!!!! Muhahahahahaaaaa!!!!!!!!
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|lol
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|i think this is their only option it will cost them nothing to add (because Sony has already fronted the money for the in store displays and advertising)
They can see themselves that sales aren't even close to DvD (numbers support this) and being in a recession what other options do you think they could offer?
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|Read it and weep people. This is current news. HD-DVD may have changed slightly, but this new technology is based on the same initial format. CBHD. Warner is already onboard for now, and this is China only. But for how long?
http://arstechnica.com/m...ray-competitor-cbhd.ars
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