It occurred to me last night...
The battle between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD is hot and heavy... both companies are willing to spend millions to get studios to join the effort on one side or the other...
The biggest challenge for the marketers is to get people to, finally, commit to buying these machines.
And what group would be an obvious key demographic for the players involved? How about 6000 members of The Academy and the 9000 or so people who are in guilds, groups, and media who also get screeners?
Of course, the majority of these folks can afford to buy machines if they so choose. But getting them/us off the dime is a challenge.
So what if either Sony, on the Blu-Ray side, and Microsoft on the HD side made a play to make sure that those who get 50+ screeners this awards season get them in traditional DVD AND in the High Definition version of their creation?
If I have 20 of the top movies of the year sitting on my shelf in one of these formats, even if I can just pop in the regular DVD, isn't the temptation to consider a new player increased significantly... especially if I have the hi-def TV, which this demographic has more in larger numbers than most?
It's the old razors and razor blades concept, except that in this case, the cost of the initial razor is what is prohibitive... and if you can get them to buy the razor at all, there is an incremental value to selling these blades instead of the old one... but the bigger issue is not making a fortune on DVD "razors," but market share for these players, which is life and death... especially to the Japanese business model.
Of course - and not entirely unfairly - some of you will think I just want a bunch of free High Definition DVDs on my shelf. Guilty.
But had I not recently joined the hi-def game. After a week with a souped up DVR – 1T hard drive attached to my DirecTV DVR - I already have 13 hi-def movies sitting there that I am looking forward to watching. Do I really NEED a Blu-Ray or HD player?
Is it worth it to a guild or Academy member who isn’t worrying about making rent to spend a few hundred bucks to catch the wave of the moment AND to see Atonement or No Country For Old Men or Across The Universe or Sweeney Todd or Into The Wild in the best way possible over Thanksgiving dinner? Aren’t a lot of those folks right on the edge of making the choice to go HD – unlike people not waiting to buy coded Cinea machines – and isn’t this a great opportunity to push them? And wouldn't this be the best way -other than on a movie screen - for voters to see these movies?
Yes, it would be more expensive and production issues are surely even more problematic than with regular DVDs. (Piracy is mostly a non-issue as the pirates are not in the HD business yet.) But the financial interests on the side of the two manufacturing sides are much bigger drivers than any hindrance. Moving the A-list demographic has got to be too tempting for them to just leave for next year… right?
Read the complete post at http://www.mcnblogs.com/thehotblog/archives/2007/09/wholl_do_it.html