Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Great Moments in PR

Galley Friend B.W. sends the link to this WSJ story on declining DVD revenue for Hollywood. It's a great story, but check out this hidden gem:
Recently, for example, the major studios opened negotiations to provide movies to be played on Apple Computer Inc.'s video iPod -- an important step toward Hollywood's digital future. Then Wal-Mart, the biggest seller of DVDs, disrupted the talks when it delivered a pointed warning to the studios not to give Apple a better deal for digital movies than the retailer gets for physical copies.

"Our conversations with the studios are about what Wal-Mart has always been about -- giving our customers the best value and selection," said a Wal-Mart spokeswoman in an email response.

Wal-Mart = slightly evil

But also of note is the Katzenberg's somewhat iffy pronouncement on the future of Hi-Def DVDs:

"DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg says while the new format will be a high-margin business, 'it's not clear whether it will grow into a mass-market platform.'"

That's not a ringing endorsement of the medium. Could it be that Sony loses big even if Blu-Ray wins the war?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Decline of DVD sales was predictable. As the medium took off, people were bound to buy up old titles of DVDs, artificially pumping up the sales. By now, I suspect that people more or less have the old DVD titles they want and are picking and choosing what they want of the new titles that come along.