UltraViolet Market Trends:

[Walter-S_North_Carolina]

Re: UltraViolet Market Trends:

#4 I think may be a step which is holding back a larger marketing push and perhaps factoring into the decision by Disney to move forward.

If I had to guess, that one item checked off the Laundery List, will have the largest impact.

[LuzRinggold]

Re: UltraViolet Market Trends:

There are a few things that should happen this year that I expect will drive up the demand for UV usage.

1. Vudu IOS app launch
2. At Home Disc to Digital coming out of beta will increase consumer awareness.
3. MGM making their catalog available to Disc to Digital
4. Common File Format being deployed.
5. At least one new retailer adding UV capability: It might be Amazon, Xbox, Lovefilm, or Blinkbox

1. That might help increase usage
2. I don't think that will really have an impact
3. I strongly agree that MGM needs to make their entire catalog available...either they're in or they're out
4. That also should help
5. I think we need more than one...we have M-Go fixing to start up and I would like to see Barnes and Noble get more involved pushing UV.

I think getting a stronger presence in the Andriod market would be huge since Andriod leads the mobile device market. I don't know what is available on the Apple devices, but if there are not many choices for UV on those devices then they also should be attacked. This would help UV to gain ground on iTunes.

Of course the service providers like VUDU, M-Go, and CinemaNow are going to have to be able to roll out enhancements to their interfaces much faster. We've been waiting for the ability to sort on VUDU's website for many months now. We've been asking for features that allow us to arrange our video library to make it easier to find movies. Several requests have been made, but only a few have been implemented and since their interface is basically what their "product" they are going to have to be able to meet the demands of their customers faster than they have over the past year or so (in my opinion).

My ultimate dream come true would be having a service like Netflix merge with Hulu and join UV. One service that does it all...well, almost everything. The other thing missing that might help even a company like VUDU is to offer video games for customers with X-Box or PlayStation. Hmmm....I wonder if something like UV would be something people would be interested in for games?

[echopulse]

Re: UltraViolet Market Trends:

There are a few things that should happen this year that I expect will drive up the demand for UV usage.

1. Vudu IOS app launch
2. At Home Disc to Digital coming out of beta will increase consumer awareness.
3. MGM making their catalog available to Disc to Digital
4. Common File Format being deployed.
5. At least one new retailer adding UV capability: It might be Amazon, Xbox, Lovefilm, or Blinkbox

However, I think all of these things are behind schedule from what was originally planned

[Walter-S_North_Carolina]

Re: UltraViolet Market Trends:

I didn't know that BestBuy was having financial troubles...

Yes, quite accute...

1) http://money.msn.com/investment-advi...buy-brush.aspx
2) http://financial.christianmoney.com/...are-dying.html
3) http://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambro...-from-schulze/

Circuit City no longer exists. BestBuy is trying to find a way to stay afloat.

[Walter-S_North_Carolina]

Re: UltraViolet Market Trends:

Last Summer, a Lionsgate spokesman said that only 150K UV copies of The Hunger Games were activated, and the disc sold several million copies. That was after at least a few months after the disc was sold. I'd like to see some more recent numbers from a recent blockbuster release like Skyfall, or The Hobbit.

Mr. Echopulse,

If I understand you correctly, you are suggesting the consumer acceptance of UV has been troublesome and below expectations. You may be right. I honesly do not know.

However, allow me to play devil's advocate:

A few months after Hungergames was released in packaged media with a UV insert, an estimated <10% of the consumers elected the UV copy as well. This is indicated by the activation ratio of the UV copy provided inside the packaged media.

Now, the question is does packaged media see a decline in sales.
Answer='YES'

Does iVoD see an increase in sales
Answer='Yes'

Is the consumer market moving to iVoD in lue of packaged media
Answer='Yes'

Six months after the advent of UV, Hunger Games is shipped with a UV insert. It sort of sounds like to me that ratio (estimated of ~1:10) is about what I would expect. I know I have Hunger Games in my UV locker from redeeming the UV code in the Bluray. My son got it as a Birthday Gift. He likes to be able to tote it around on his Kindle Fire via Flixster and watch it on the school bus.

Now over 18 months in, the purple UV Logo is everywhere.

However, I do know of a lot of people who have UV codes in their recently purchased Bluray titles that they could care less about redeeming. They have just not bought into the UV concept yet.

I do think this will change as more and more people look to get their content via a streaming cloud service instead of through packaged media. All indicators are this trend shows no sign of reversing.

Eventually, folks will go back to their purchased Bluray titles, fish out the UV redemption codes, and redeem them into their UV lockers. I would estimate the Lionsgate executive will be able to report a ratio of 1:2 after about three years of Hunger Games having been released.

this is just speculation on my part though. I must admit.

[LuzRinggold]

Re: UltraViolet Market Trends:

As far as CinemaNow, the company which backs that service has been steering down bankruptcy. It doesn?t surprise me they are slow to update their catalog.

I didn't know that BestBuy was having financial troubles...

[echopulse]

Re: UltraViolet Market Trends:

In ten years, the iTunes store has accumulated at least 400 million user accounts with credit card numbers. That is a huge user base, but of course not all of them purchase movies. A lot of these accounts will be used mainly for iPhone apps and some music purchases. If only 1% of users purchased a movie, that would be 4 million people buying movies. That's huge.

We don't know a whole lot about the number of vudu or UV users. We know there are 12 million accounts. But what we don't know is how many people have an account because they opened up the flixster app on their iPhone and were given an account, and never use it. I would suspect at least one out of 10, so maybe a million accounts aren't being used.

Last Summer, a Lionsgate spokesman said that only 150K UV copies of The Hunger Games were activated, and the disc sold several million copies. That was after at least a few months after the disc was sold. I'd like to see some more recent numbers from a recent blockbuster release like Skyfall, or The Hobbit.


In the last few months there haven't been many new UV enabled titles added. A lot of studio's that support UV still have a lot of missing titles from their catalog. If all the supporting studio's enabled all the titles that are available on vudu that would add at least 2,000 more titles, and that's not including MGM. That's not including other smaller studio's. There are 16,000 movies on vudu that aren't Disney.

[Walter-S_North_Carolina]

Re: UltraViolet Market Trends:

I understand that having that many titles is a major accomplishment, but what I mean by slow growth is more the user/customer base and I guess I was thinking more in terms of rental with VUDU and CinemaNow more than just vanilla UV. Also, D2D has really come to a stand still over the past month. Finally, there are still plenty of other studios who have not accepted UV that is holding UV back from really competing with iTunes. Disney getting on board and MGM making their entire library available for D2D would probably kill iTunes in my opinion.

And what's up with CinemaNow? Their D2D service is still in beta and they have not added any new titles since 12/21/2012!

Good point. There is a difference in acceptance between number of titles and number of simultaneous streams (a.k.a. people watching movies at any given time). I stand corrected.

As far as CinemaNow, the company which backs that service has been steering down bankruptcy. It doesn't surprise me they are slow to update their catalog.

[LuzRinggold]

Re: UltraViolet Market Trends:

I agree except for the part where you say UV is growing slowly. I have to take exception to that.

In just over 18 months, UV has over 9,000 titles. No other media format has had such acceptence. This is a new high water mark for acceptance.

I understand that having that many titles is a major accomplishment, but what I mean by slow growth is more the user/customer base and I guess I was thinking more in terms of rental with VUDU and CinemaNow more than just vanilla UV. Also, D2D has really come to a stand still over the past month. Finally, there are still plenty of other studios who have not accepted UV that is holding UV back from really competing with iTunes. Disney getting on board and MGM making their entire library available for D2D would probably kill iTunes in my opinion.

And what's up with CinemaNow? Their D2D service is still in beta and they have not added any new titles since 12/21/2012!

[Walter-S_North_Carolina]

Re: UltraViolet Market Trends:

Good point! UV is still very young. Heck, most employees at Walmart don't even know what VUDU is. They think it's some kind of black magic.

Something else to remember is that UV is also starting up in other markets like Australia, France, Germany, and New Zealand. Also, other service providers like M-GO starting up that will support UV.

Although slowly, UV is growing and I don't think it's really fair to compare UV to iTunes at this point.

I agree except for the part where you say UV is growing slowly. I have to take exception to that.

In just over 18 months, UV has over 9,000 titles. No other media format has had such acceptence. This is a new high water mark for acceptance.

[Walter-S_North_Carolina]

Re: UltraViolet Market Trends:

I don't know why? AppleTV is my least used device because all the digital copies I own are in HDX on Vudu except for 5. All the digital copies I own on Apple are SD except for 2 so I would rather use Vudu first, CinemaNow second, Amazon Instant Video third and Apple last.

Just the carry over toe-hold they have from a decade of iTunes users.

iVoD is still a very new market. They have a large market share of a new market, but I doubt they will do anything but stay even as everyone else grows as the market grows. That is the only thing that I can guess. The report cited user's liking the Apple store/interface. Perhaps that is it too. Vudu can take a lesson from the Apple usability text book.

I am like you. I own no content on iTunes. I just use it to view Podcasts and my disney rips. Same with Amazon. I use Amazon to view Prime, but own no content from them except for books for the kindle.

[lujan]

Re: UltraViolet Market Trends:

Mr. EchoPulse,

Holy smoke Apple is clobbering the sell-through market.

...

I don't know why? AppleTV is my least used device because all the digital copies I own are in HDX on Vudu except for 5. All the digital copies I own on Apple are SD except for 2 so I would rather use Vudu first, CinemaNow second, Amazon Instant Video third and Apple last.

[LuzRinggold]

Re: UltraViolet Market Trends:

Remember, UV is only about 18 months since advent. The consumer market place is quickly getting saturated with the purple logo on their packaged media. This will invariably lead to a spike in acceptance as more consumers begin to enjoy the benefits of UV as a delivery method.

Good point! UV is still very young. Heck, most employees at Walmart don't even know what VUDU is. They think it's some kind of black magic.

Something else to remember is that UV is also starting up in other markets like Australia, France, Germany, and New Zealand. Also, other service providers like M-GO starting up that will support UV.

Although slowly, UV is growing and I don't think it's really fair to compare UV to iTunes at this point.

[Walter-S_North_Carolina]

Re: UltraViolet Market Trends:

...BTW, congratulation to Vudu making it into third place behind Apple in first and Amazon in second.

I can remember when Vudu was an obscure service.

Then there was a lighting bolt with the WalMart purchase and then again with the UV -> D2D service. Their rise from obscurity has been remarkable.

I for one am a big fan of their iVoD service. The quality is superb and library remarkable. The addition of their UV->D2D service has sealed the deal for me.

Neither Amazon nor Apple has a comparable offering to what Vudu is bringing to the iVoD market.

[Walter-S_North_Carolina]

Re: UltraViolet Market Trends:

There is a new report out that compares VOD EST and rental market-share of different retailers.

In the Rental Market:

iTunes: 45%
Amazon Instant: 18%
Vudu: 15%
Xbox Marketplace: 14%
Other: 8%

Much better here, but doesn't matter in terms of UV competiton.


Full Report

Mr. EchoPulse,

Holy smoke Apple is clobbering the sell-through market.

That is 2012, though. Also, the market as a whole is growing rapidly. One report said 130%+ per year.

I personally seriously doubt their market leader status will stay unrivaled for very much longer. It is just that they had a toe hold early on.

As packaged media sales continue to decline and the VoD industry expands, I would expect Apple's sales figures to stay about flat line, while others start to grow with the market.

Remember, UV is only about 18 months since advent. The consumer market place is quickly getting saturated with the purple logo on their packaged media. This will invariably lead to a spike in acceptance as more consumers begin to enjoy the benefits of UV as a delivery method.

It was the studios who ended the Bluray/HD-DVD debate. It is the studios who are too electing UV as the delivery method. As the suppliers of the content, their decision matters most.

-Walter

P.S. the report does not mention what percentage of the D2D sales the respective companies hold, but I do know Apple has 0% of the D2D market and Amazon is matching them with 0% of the market as well.