Towergrove
Screenwriter
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2011
- Messages
- 1,150
- Real Name
- Sarah
http://homemediamagazine.com/news/2014-home-entertainment-visionary-digital-hd-32632"For the first time in the dozen-year history of Home Media Magazine’s annual Home Entertainment Visionary Award, we are honoring a concept, not a person.The honoree: Digital HD, the official brand name the studios are applying to content available via electronic sellthrough.Studios for years have wanted to sell their movies, TV shows and other content digitally. Much like the packaged-goods business — VHS, and then, in particular, DVD and Blu-ray Disc — studios generate a much higher profit when consumers buy something rather than rent it, or stream it.Digital sales have always looked especially appealing because of the huge audience of content buyers that was developed during the golden days of DVD. The concept of huge sales, with none of the hassles of physical product — manufacturing, packaging, distribution and returns — has always held high appeal, but remained elusive even as the streaming side of the business grew significantly.Try as they might, studios simply couldn’t get consumers to buy downloads — even as these same consumers embraced streaming, Netflix and VOD.Last year, things finally jelled. Studios shrewdly realized they needed to give consumers an incentive to buy a movie or TV show digitally rather than on disc, so they began releasing titles early, generally two weeks before the DVD and Blu-ray Disc release. Sony pioneered the practice back in 2011, but it wasn’t until 2013 that the exception fast became the rule.Studios also agreed on common branding — Digital HD — and worked to widen distribution channels. A major coup occurred in November 2013 when Comcast began selling movies and other content through its Xfinity TV store. Within three months, the giant cable company owned 15% of the market.As a result of these efforts, Digital HD is all of a sudden the home entertainment industry’s hot little comer. And it is for this reason that we bestow our 2013 Home Entertainment Visionary Award on Digital HD, the details of which are explored, recounted and mused upon in this exclusive White Paper."
