Dolby at MS Conf notes - 2/28/18
Fireside chat format with Lewis Chew, CFO
- They are very happy how prevalent Dolby Atmos was at CES. They think it will be awhile before Atmos is available on sub-$100 sound bars.
- Licensing economics are primarily tied to per unit volume, with some volume discounts. Gave a historic example in the PC market for audio licensing, 75 cents/unit with DVD capability, 25 cents/unit without.
- Any big content providers they want to come on full steam? He mentioned Amazon. Most new films are on board. Very little legacy libraries have DA or DV.
- Netflix, all new HDR titles will be in DV.
- PC discussion - Still a 250M unit yearly business, with virtually no DV penetration. One laptop had DV at CES.
- DV on TV's - Feels the center point is now the $600-$1000 TV range. A year ago it would have been the $1000+ range.
- Lewis feels the primary driver to make DA/DV mainstream will be the major content providers, ie Netflix Tencent
- Very interesting Q&A discussion, asked about how to quantify the metrics for every TV having DV. He made the comparison that it would be equal to their existing audio business - more than $1B. Smartphones and their 2B/year volume would be a whole different level.
- Dolby Voice - Initial traction slow, hard to displace existing systems. DVoice is not currently a smart speaker, car audio, or Skype technology.
- YoY growth is in new initiatives and mobile legacy. They have organic growth in mobile, not just the recovery in Q1.
- Competition - Really none, particularly in audio. Feel their only competition is an existing product is "good enough".
- 80 Dolby Cinema screens in US now.
Personal note - It is amazing how personable and open Lewis was, versus OLED!!!!! |
