Home Entertainment: Why 2013 Was the Year of Digital HD
But the big lesson from 2013 is that the entire business is shifting – not just in bits and pieces, as in years past, but in a unified, holistic way.
A growing number of movies are getting this “early EST” release, and the digital product even got an official name in 2013: Digital HD.
Ron Sanders, president of Warner Bros. Worldwide Home Entertainment Distribution, said EST should be up 50% this year and surpass $1 billion on consumer spending. “Warner Bros. now offers early EST on virtually all of our theatrical new release titles,” he said.
Janice Marinelli, president of Disney Studio Global In-Home and Digital Distribution and Disney-ABC North America Content Distribution, said the results of this strategy are tangible. “For the right collectable movie title, we are seeing that early windows provide a definite boost,” she said.
And no one should discount the fact that the new generation of Blu-ray Disc players all have wireless Internet connections and allow consumers to connect their TVs to the web. They can be used not just to watch Blu-ray Discs, but to stream movies through Netflix, for example.
“There’s no question that effectively bridging physical and digital is key to fueling the long-term growth of our business,” Kornblau said. “Flexibility, utility and affordability of both physical and digital products bundled into one high-quality Blu-ray Combo Pack creates an unparalleled value proposition for the avid movie consumer and provides them the ultimate choice in how and when they want to watch their favorite films. Based on Universal’s successes and others across the industry, it is clear that digital and Blu-ray now are not only co-existing but growing in lockstep with evolving consumer behaviors.”
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