You rock, Disney!

[Clark Kent]

Do not be so sure about Disney not undermining the Blu-ray format in the future. I just participated in an extensive focus group from Disney. The entire grueling process was rating an online downloading service for their movies that they plan to roll out relatively soon.

Disney is clearly hedging their bets, and I do not think many people here will like what they see when it becomes public. They want to start selling downloads and streaming rentals of their movies.

[ZoetMB]

Originally Posted by Clark Kent

Do not be so sure about Disney not undermining the Blu-ray format in the future. I just participated in an extensive focus group from Disney. The entire grueling process was rating an online downloading service for their movies that they plan to roll out relatively soon.

Disney is clearly hedging their bets, and I do not think many people here will like what they see when it becomes public. They want to start selling downloads and streaming rentals of their movies.

The question is whether people will opt for convenience over quality as they did in audio. Although, even with music, downloads weren't viable until Apple put iTunes together. People want consolidated services: they don't want to have to go to a Disney site for Disney moves, a Warner site for WB movies, etc.

In addition, broadband service in the U.S. isn't that great and it's going to be a long time before truly high-res services are viable for hi-rez downloads or streaming. It's okay for watching a TV show you don't care all that much about for free, but it's quite different once you're paying.

Disney (and others) are calculating that their costs will be lower in a download environment, but that's a myth. With Blu-ray, your packaging and manufacturing costs are the same per unit, but with downloading, the more customers you have, the more infrastructure you need. And most of the cost isn't in manufacturing anyway - that's a pittance. It's in restoration, mastering and paying participations and royalties to the directors, actors, etc. (In fact, for older films, it's figuring out if they have the non-theatrical rights in the first place.)

Of course, if you're willing to go through someone else's site (like iTunes) you avoid that, but then you give away a large chunk of the revenue.

So the cards are still out. Digital downloads hasn't eliminated CDs, although CD sales are way down. I think Blu-ray and downloads will co-exist, just as broadcast TV, cable TV, pay-TV, theatrical, DVD and all other media co-exist.

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by ZoetMB

The question is whether people will opt for convenience over quality as they did in audio. … So the cards are still out. Digital downloads hasn't eliminated CDs, although CD sales are way down.

CDs still outperform all other music sales combined, also I don't think it was much of a choice of convenience over quality or CDs would have disappeared (the same way VHS lost out to DVDs and now DVD is dropping fast while BD is growing fast). The issue was SACD/DVD-A where never viable. The Format war was relatively evenly matched and so too many people stayed on the side lines not wanting to buy the wrong format. They both died before having a chance so people did not get to pick (except for sticking with CDs)