DVD HITTING JACKPOT Format wins raves at Vegas electronics show
JOHN VOLAND
01/09/98
Daily Variety
Page 7
Copyright 1998 Variety, Inc.
LAS VEGAS --- It's full speed ahead for DVD in the homevideo world, several industry chieftains reported at a confab Thursday at the Consumer Electronics Show here.
Warner Home Video prexy Warren Lieberfarb, long an advocate for the format, noted that holiday-season numbers for DVD sales capped a debut year for the format that generated more than $50 million in revenues for the studio.
"The success of the birth of this format," Lieberfarb added, "has emboldened us at WHV to create a promotional campaign (for DVD ) in 1998 that will be far larger than it was in 1997."
A long string of homevideo heavyweights followed Lieberfarb to the rostrum and generally echoed his figures and sentiments. Columbia TriStar Home Video boss Ben Feingold noted that his company passed the 1 million unit mark already, and they have plans to offer more than 100 titles --- more than three times as many as were offered in 1997 --- this year.
Both distributors and retailers noted that catalog sales were very strong for the format, underlining DVD advocates' basic argument that the format can be a powerful sell-through and rental generator.
Brad Anderson, chief operating officer of electronics retailing giant Best Buy, said each DVD player sold through his chain had generated sales of 22 titles for that player, many of which were catalog titles (as opposed to new releases).
He added that 1997 "has convinced us to commit to a major push for the format in 1998."
No mention of the Divx rentals-driven DVD format was made at the confab, which was primarily a DVD Video event. Nevertheless, Universal Studios Home Video prexy Louis Feola generated knowing smiles and nods around the banquet room when he noted that "1998 will be marked by a renewed unity of purpose with this format ... the purpose being to aggressively pursue the homevideo window with the DVD format."
Also intriguing was the presence at the confab of Microsoft Corp. "technological evangelist" Peter Biddle, who reminded the assembly of the embrace of the parallel DVD -ROM format by the computer industry.
"We can't overlook the fact that this is still the best shot we have at a universal storage medium," he said. |
