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PhysicalMedia posts

Futuresource predicts physical media market will remain flat until 2012

by Steven Kim posted Feb 2nd 2009 at 9:01AM

Futuresource chartAs we've seen, Blu-ray does seem to be growing its slice of the packaged media pie, but research firm Futuresource doesn't expect that pie to grow. Instead, Futuresource predicts that growth in the home entertainment arena will come on the backs of, you guessed it -- mobile and online distribution -- while increased Blu-ray revenue will just offset DVD's fade. The usual suspects of Blu-ray's marginal quality benefits and pricing disparity are offered up as reasons that Blu-ray won't increase packaged media consumption overall, but we think there might be something else to the chart. The slow overall growth of media consumption shows we're becoming saturated by existing content delivery (physical discs, online, mobile, VOD, DVRs); or we're seeing the death throes of physical media and the slow initial growth of its successor(s) -- what's your take?

Netflix sees subscribers opting for streaming over mailing, global surplus in red envelopes predicted

by Tim Stevens posted Jan 28th 2009 at 9:39AM

Netflix sees subscribers opting for streaming over mailing, global surplus in red envelopes predicted
We already covered the numbers from Netflix's impressive earnings call this past Monday, but there was another story lurking in there too; a potential sign of the coming apocalypse for physical media. The company is reporting that many of its customers are substituting mailed movies for streamed ones, taxing the USPS less and their broadband connections more. CEO Reed Hastings is playing coy about whether this is a strong trend or just the curious behavior of early adopters, and since his company gets paid either way he probably doesn't care, but you can be sure those still firmly attached to profits from plastic discs are going to be watching this pattern rather closely. (As if Sony needed any more bad news.)

Atari president confident about physical media's decline

by Darren Murph posted Dec 8th 2008 at 11:33AM

While high ranking executives from high ranking companies have bickered back and forth about the longevity of Blu-ray as a format, Atari president Phil Harrison has some pretty strong feelings on physical media as a whole. In an interview with Edge, the bigwig stated that "there's a generation of kids being born today and probably already alive who I'm pretty confident will never buy a physical media product; they will never buy a DVD, they will never buy a CD, and they will never buy a game in a box." While some may jump on this as being patently absurd, we're not so sure it's a crazy as it at first sounds. Video games in particular have been distributed via the 'net for some time now (Steam, anyone?), and it's no secret that programming and movies are headed in that direction. There's no way to accurately predict how many more generations will be buying wares in boxes, but it's safe to say we're a lot closer than most people expected us to be just a decade ago.

[Via G4TV]

Downloads haven't arrived at a theater near you yet

by Steven Kim posted Mar 5th 2008 at 10:58AM

Movie downloads not upon us just yetHey, don't say we didn't tell you so, but according to The Diffusion Group, the great masses aren't ready to get their full-length movie content via download just yet. Here's the blow-by-blow findings from the study: more than half polled didn't even know movie downloads exist; more than a third know about but have never tried them; and less than 10-percent regularly download movies. And what, pray tell, is the biggest feature consumers are looking for? A little something called "quality of content," a.k.a. "more titles, please." Shocker, right? Don't get us wrong, we're all for downloadable content. But beyond the chicken-and-egg problem of getting studio support to attract more customers to get studio support, there are other outstanding issues as well. Until bandwidth is a non-issue and crazy DRM restrictions are gone, physical media makes good sense to consumers and businesses alike. Of course, if you've made the switch to all direct download movies, let us know about it below!




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