Studios load Blu-ray releases with extras...

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By Susanne Ault
Video Business, 8/1/2008

Studios are starting to deliver on their promise of extra features that will give consumers a reason to trade up from standard DVD to Blu-ray Disc.

20th Century Fox Home Entertainment´s Planet of the Apes 40 Year Evolution Blu-ray Collection, streeting Nov. 4, boasts five format exclusive features not included on any previous discs.

"For next year´s 30th anniversary of Being There, we found more than 10 minutes of deleted scenes and alternate endings that no one has seen before, and we´re putting that only on the Blu-ray version," said Jeff Baker, executive VP/general manager of theatrical catalog at Warner Home Video. "The standard-def version will be at a lower price, but we are really trying to trade people up to Blu-ray. We are seeking out our assets that we can apply to Blu-ray to encourage consumers to step up."

Baker also believes October´s launch of The Matrix gift set in Blu-ray will prove more alluring than its earlier standard-def release.

"It should be the best-selling set that we´ve ever done on Blu-ray," he said.

Also contributing to growing differences between the old and new formats is this year´s debut of BD Live, Sony´s VP of business development Rich Marty said.

This fourth quarter, Sony will try to trump its earlier Casino Royale Blu-ray release with a special edition BD version that features a distinct peer-to-peer trivia game.

"We want to keep adding to the format, and BD Live gives us this whole new ability to reinvigorate attraction to the title," Marty said.

Blu-ray boasts better audio and video quality than standard-def, but to date, many Blu-ray titles have been short on even the extras that are routinely available on standard DVD.

"I think at the absolute minimum, Blu-ray customers should get at least everything that´s available on the DVD release," said Shannon Nutt, editorial director at DVDEmpire.com.

Despite Blu-ray´s higher capacity, the format´s higher resolution and interactivity can limit disc space, forcing decisions about what to include, studio executives said.

Summit Home Entertainment packed the standard-def version of Never Back Down with both the theatrical and unrated cuts. The Blu-ray version just held the unrated one but also had an exclusive multi-angle feature.

"After you put in high-def audio and video, since that is the focus, you might not have as much space on the Blu-ray as you did on a [standard def] two-disc special edition," said Steve Nickerson, Summit president. "So now you have to choose."

"We really take a good, better and best approach with our product assortment," said Nickerson. "Single is good, two-disc better, and the Blu-ray should always be your best product. It might not include everything from the [standard] DVD. But it should be considered the best product."

One thing Blu-ray has yet to benefit from are exclusive retail premiums.

Best Buy, for instance, offers a free lithograph with pre-orders of all three standard-def Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment titles Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid: Ariel´s Beginning and Tinker Bell. The lithograph, a reproduction of the classic 1959 Sleeping Beauty movie poster, is not available with Blu-ray purchases.

Similarly, Best Buy exclusively offered a free tote bag and T-shirt with purchase of two-disc standard-def editions of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment´s The Water Horse and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, respectively. The same deal excluded the titles´ Blu-ray copies.

Studio and retail sources explained that the added merchandise is mainly used to entice people to buy a premium-priced two-disc special edition over the cheaper single-disc version. The Blu-ray customer is still loading up relatively new players with content and requires less motivation to snag titles in the format.

"And you´re already getting a price premium with the Blu-ray version," added one source. "You´re already getting a bigger ring there. Retail push for exclusives so the consumer will go up two or three dollars."

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