Published:
31-Jul-08
Warner Home Video (WHV) is to launch two aggressive Blu-ray Disc (BD) fourth quarter 2008 pricing initiatives in the US. From September 2008 through to the first quarter 2009 Warner will effectively lower the trade price of selected catalogue and recent titles though a point-of-sale rebate programme which will effectively reduce the trade price of some BD catalogue titles to as little as $11. After retailer margin has been added, retail prices for catalogue BD titles such as
Enter the Dragon,
Clockwork Orange and
The Shining are likely to fall significantly, while more recent titles like
300,
The Departed and
I Am Legend, are expected to retail at $17-$20 rather than their current price of $24-$30.
Our take...
Warner was instrumental in reducing early DVD trade pricing and is no doubt hoping to replicate the success of the latter format through PS3 households and the small but growing BD player installed base. However, dropping prices at this stage of the market is a risky move, since its success depends on consumers choosing to spend more. And by establishing far lower pricing at this stage of the market Warner runs the risk of cementing lower price expectations among consumers. Screen Digest forecasts already account for a substantial consumer price depreciation in BD but should trade prices regularly fall to this extent this early in the BD markets development, particularly if they then allow BD's price premium over DVD to be lost, the benefit to the industry of introducing BD into the packaged media market could be lost altogether.
USA,
