Netflix, Blu-ray and the Future
Recently added to the PS3, Netflix streaming support is growing.
‘Tis the Season
One thing is for sure, 2009 could prove to be a banner year for the Blu-ray format. Adoption rates could surge this quarter, fueled by deep discounts on hardware and holiday sales on software.
Retailers such as Best Buy and Wal-Mart are already offering significant price cuts on Blu-ray software throughout the holiday season, and online retailers such as Amazon will continue to sell product under MSRP into the New Year.
Perhaps the biggest boon is the recently refreshed PlayStation 3 hardware, now attractively priced at $299, and is a safe bet to become the best-selling Blu-ray device this winter.
Netflix has a bullish forecast for the Blu-ray format this holiday season.
“Blu-ray was supposed to be the big thing three years ago, but the format war delayed that for a couple of years,” says Swasey, “But as Blu-ray prices come down, we think it’s going to be a big Blu-ray season – holiday season – finally.”
Andy Parsons, Chairman of Promotion at the Blu-ray Disc Association shares this prognosis.
“Holiday quarters are always pretty big for products like Blu-ray, and I think some of the pricing we’re now seeing from a number of different companies certainly indicates that a Blu-ray player is well within reach of a much larger audience,” says Parsons.
“In fact, at some of the prices I’m seeing in the news now, it looks like it’s becoming pretty much an impulse buy. So, I think it’s shaping up to be a pretty big quarter for Blu-ray.”
This jives with recent NPD Group analysis that predicts the format will penetrate into the mass market sometime next year, and data revealed by the CEA that shows Blu-ray as the eighth most-requested electronics device for the holidays.
With the recent economic downturn, and plummeting hardware costs, there is optimism amongst Blu-ray supporters who feel cash-strapped consumers will opt to spend money on consumer electronics rather than spend money on expensive gifts or family vacations.
That ripple effect could effectively define the Blu-ray player as the must-own home entertainment device going into next year.
“Earlier this year we began to make the transition into the mass market, and with aggressive pricing on the hardware side becoming more prevalent, the opportunity is to break into more households,” replies Parsons.
“I suspect there are a lot of folks out there with flat screen TVs that have no idea how good they can look, because they may be watching standard definition DVD on it, or may not have it connected to a HD source.”
“So I think it’s a way to surprise and delight people when they see how fantastic their HDTVs can look with a HD source like Blu-ray.”
And the Blu-ray Disc Association is not alone – Netflix thinks a likely uptick in adoption, along with flexible hardware support, will add to the format’s longevity.
“As prices keep coming down,” Swasey starts off, “And functionality keeps getting better and better with the inclusion of things like Netflix on Blu-ray players, it’s going to extend the format and Blu-ray is going to be around for a long time.”
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