Hi-Def Solidarity on Horizon?

[sj001]

http://www.hollywoodinhidef.com/blog_detail.php?id=160

LAS VEGAS -- Across the Strip from the Cirque du Soleil show featuring Beatles' songs such as "Come Together" and "Give Peace a Chance," it was very encouraging to see, hear and feel so many signs of hi-def disc industry unification and potential solidarity in the near future.

Blu-ray leaders quietly and unofficially discussed reaching out to HD DVD rivals to make that happen and to make the transition as easy and painless as possible for HD DVD consumers:

* Talk among top Blu-ray studio execs of shifting monies spent on battling HD DVD to offering some sort of deals to trade-in HD DVD and/or switch to Blu-ray. This concept was floated by Bill Hunt (Digital Bits), among others, during informal discussions at receptions. Some studio execs agreed with the concept and some said it was something already being kicked around unofficially (though Sony Pictures Home Entertainment president David Bishop officially denied any such plans were in place at this time when asked in a formal setting at the Blu-ray media event last night -- Monday).

* Acknowledgement by some Blu-ray execs that Universal and president Craig Kornblau did, in fact, achieve his stated strategy goal (here at hollywoodinhidef.com) for the benefit of the overall market by encouraging the format war long enough to more quickly drive down hardware prices for both formats and get hi-def players in more consumer homes more quickly. (Kornblau was at the show -- I saw him and said hello in passing -- but he was in a hurry and otherwise very lowkey at CES as was every other HD DVD representative. The darkly decorated HD DVD Promotion Group booth was nearly a ghost town compared to the bright and active Blu-ray booth next door.)

* After allowing themselves about 5 minutes of basking in the victory of having Warner join Blu-ray exclusively, Blu-ray execs expressed the realization that they must now re-focus more energy than ever on converting general consumers from DVD to hi-def, a challenge that should have been the focus for the last two years before the industry was distracted with the format war.

* Lionsgate president Steve Beeks: "We believe that 2008 will be a year in which the wasted energy of format competition will be replaced by a broad multi-faceted effort to rally behind a unified standard to expand the home entertainment market and enrich the home entertainment experience."

* Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment president Bob Chapek noted that as a result of the de facto end to the format war, "resources will now be freed up to do more productive things," including marketing Blu-ray to smaller markets (in response to a question about smaller markets).

Studios and filmmakers were already showcasing all that Blu-ray can offer and emphasizing how it is being embraced by the creative community as the new preferred format for delivering their movies.

* Filmmaker Dean Devlin at Sony event Monday morning: "I'm not thinking of (Blu-ray) as an ancillary market -- I'm thinking of it as the primary place for people to experience the movie."

* Sony, Fox, and Lionsgate demonstrating BD Live bonus features of upcoming Blu-ray titles, including:
-- a networked "Men in Black" trivia game (Sony)
-- full movie downloads from Blu-ray to PSP in 20-minutes (Sony)
-- cell phone ringtone downloads from Blu-ray (Sony)
-- new trailer downloads (Sony)
-- download of sneak peek at Will Smith's new July 2 theatrical "Hancock" (Sony)
-- "Alien vs Predator vs You" multi-player online interactive game in which you create an avatar of yourself, choose a weapon, and compete during the movie itself (Fox, with Panasonic and Related Content Database).
-- filmmaker and other bloggers creating real-time text commentaries as movie plays in new "MoLog" feature for Jan. 22 "Saw IV" release (Lionsgate).

Stats from the Blu-ray presentation Monday night:

* With Warner exclusive to Blu-ray, 2008 studio marketshare will be 68.4% exclusive to Blu-ray, 22.8% exclusive to HD DVD (the rest dabbling in both or neither) -- Pioneer's Andy Parsons, chairman of the Blu-ray Disc Association.

* Blu-ray players in 2008 will grow from 3. 5 million now (3 mil. PS3s and 500,000 stand-alones) to nearly 10 million (another 2 mil. stand-alones and another 4 mil. PS3s), according to Danny Kaye, Fox's exec vp research and technology. He also says that the $170 million in software sales in 2007 (5.6 mil. units) will grow to $1 billion in 2008 (40 mil. units).

* 17 of the top 20 hi-def titles are Blu-ray -- Steve Beeks, president of Lionsgate

* Blu-ray consumer brand awareness rose from 25% in 2006 to 80% in 2007, according to Warner Bros Home Entertainment president Ron Sanders. (When asked if Warner received a financial incentive to drop HD DVD, Sanders kiddingly said, "I wish," before denying the speculation. Compared to the $42 billion global market for home video, "any payments would have been a drop in the bucket.")

None of this may rise to the level of poltical and cultural strife and unrest about which The Beatles were calling for Peace, Revolution and for everyone to Come Together in the 1960s, but it's nonetheless a good sign to see Blu-ray leaders anxious and ready to embrace any and all HD DVD proponents without malice or hard feelings so that the industry can move forward in unison and let we consumers enjoy and talk about content rather than politics and platforms.