DVD Summit Speakers: ""Connected"" Titles Will Keep Format Relevant

26-Apr-00

With the DVD-Video launch now in high gear in Europe, last week's DVD Summit 3 in Dublin, Ireland, focused on the next generation of DVD titles and emphasized the ""connected"" DVD-a disc that's linked to data on the Internet. George Welles, President of Imaging Futures, urged Summit attendees to ""exploit connecting technologies."" Noting that some prognosticators have said DVD will be a dead format in three years, Welles argued that connecting technologies could go a long way in extending DVD's lifespan. In a second keynote presentation, Panasonic Disc Services Corporation president Bob Pfannkuch had a more optimistic view. ""DVD is broadband in a narrowband world-it gets you there today,"" said Pfannkuch. ""There are a lot of bright young companies working on the connected DVD."" ROM To The Rescue? While connected DVDs are in no way limited to DVD-ROMs, the computer-based format is expected to help DVD take the next step. To date, though, it has underperformed. Greg Nelson, DVD Sales Director for MPO Europe, noted that the lack of bundling opportunities continues to hinder the DVD-ROM market. ""There's so much competition out there [among PC manufacturers] to keep prices down"" that bundling deals are extremely rare, according to Nelson. Increased manufacturing costs compared to CD have also helped turn off would-be DVD publishers, added Bob Headrick, Executive Vice President, Technicolor Packaged Media Group. However, Headrick said there is hope for the DVD-ROM market. His company is starting to receive orders of between 75,000 to 100,000 DVD-ROM units from some customers. ""That's 75,000 more [units] than we had last year,"" he said. Jim Bottoms of market consultancy Understanding & Solutions agreed, noting that the DVD-ROM installed base in Western Europe will grow to 20 percent penetration by year-end 2001, and 37 percent by year-end 2002. ""It's around 2001/2002 that it starts to become interesting for publishers,"" said Bottoms. For now, DVD-Video remains the star performer of the European market, Bottoms said, projecting that market penetration in the UK and France will continue to follow one to two years behind that of the US (see chart, below), with Germany, Spain, and Italy adopting the format more slowly. By 2003, Bottoms said, professional and consumer DVD-ROM drives will account for 65 percent of a total of 128 million DVD installations in Western Europe, with DVD-Video accounting for 16 percent, game consoles making up 13 percent, and DVD- Video/Audio ""universal"" players making up 6 percent. Technicolor Opens In UK In other news from Europe, Technicolor announced plans for a UK premastering facility. Based outside London at Heathrow Airport, the facility will launch in June with 12 employees and seven authoring stations. Technicolor expects to produce five to seven titles per month initially, and plans to have 40-45 staffers within five years' time. MGM has already signed on as a client. Source: Phillips Business Information