RonSanders
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Amazon, Rovi, Flixster and Samsung highlight UltraViolet's CES press event
The launch of UltraViolet earlier this year was very much the same as we've come to expect from Hollywood. In the case of DVD and Blu-ray, they eventually manage to get it right. Time will tell if UltraViolet ends up successful or another DRM story like PlaysForSure, but studio execs like Ron Sanders of Warner Brothers said "a year ago this was just a concept... we have a bright future" while participating in a panel at the UltraViolet press event at CES today. There are plenty of reasons he might feel that way, but announcements from Panasonic and Samsung to add Flixster app to its HDTVs and Blu-ray players is surely one of them -- Flixster is owned by Warner and evidently one of the most downloaded apps of all time from the iTunes store. In addition to the success of Flixster, the DECE claims to already have 750k UltraViolet households signed up in less than three months. The current state of UltraViolet and much more after the break.
Digital distribution up this quarter, everything else, not so much
The Digital Entertainment Group posted its third quarter numbers and digital distribution was up 23 percent, and accounted for an all time high of 13.5 percent of consumer spending on home media. The rise in digital distribution wasn't enough to hold the rest of the home media market flat though as it continued its 2010 slide by 8 percent in the first three quarters of the year -- which is something considering the first six months were only off 3.3 percent. Even with the third quarter decline, Blu-ray is still up 80 percent on the year when compared to the same period in 2009, which amounts to a cool billion in total. This dwarfs electronic sellthrough (mostly iTunes) at $432 million, which is a 37 percent increase over the first nine months of 2009. This was enough to keep DEG's pres' Ron Sander optimistic stating "While we continue to encounter tough market conditions, there are a number of positive trends emerging, particularly in some of the industry's key growth areas ... Blu-ray continues to show strong growth in every category, new release packaged media sellthrough is up, and digital distribution is gaining significant momentum as we move into the fourth quarter." Making less than last year is never fun, but all things considered, it's hard to complain about only making $6.5 billion (that's with a B).
