Don't Replace the Disc Player? Nonsense

[PornTeam]

ok so found this article for all of you guys wanting to do or currently making DVDs....

This is from Home Media Magazine.... (Main Stream)

http://www.homemediamagazine.com/edi...layer-nonsense

I hate to attack the streaming/VOD backers once again, but they are really getting ahead of themselves. I do believe digital delivery has a place in the future of entertainment. In fact, right now, if you want to catch a TV episode you missed, it can be a great option. But I must continue to take issue with those ready to put a nail in the coffin of packaged media.

On a recent “Today Show” segment about what items you should repair or replace, a representative from Wired magazine said those whose DVD players had gone kaput shouldn’t bother replacing them because everyone would soon be downloading all of their movies anyway.

Huh? Is he crazy?!

Packaged media, in the form of DVD and the new Blu-ray Disc high-definition format (which the Wired rep conveniently neglected to mention), are still doing just fine, thank you — albeit battered by the same recession that is hurting all consumer products. While disc buying may be taking a hit, the essential demand for packaged media remains. Witness the fact that kiosk companies that rent discs, such as Redbox, and online rental outlets that also rent discs, such as Netflix, are going strong. Granted, Netflix streams content to subscribers, but it also rents Blu-ray Discs at such a pace that it had to raise subscription prices for Blu-ray renters.

Don’t replace the DVD Player? Maybe not with another DVD player, but with a PlayStation 3 or Blu-ray player that will also play a library of DVDs that consumers have been collecting over the past decade. That’s what I did. I no longer own a single DVD player, but I’ve got a game system and a Blu-ray Disc player that also play my DVDs.

The NPD Group, citing an internal consumer survey conducted last month, said 51% of respondents purchased a DVD or Blu-ray Disc movie in the prior three months — a higher percentage than bought game products. Blu-ray Disc sales in the first three months of 2009 nearly doubled from first-quarter 2008, according to Adams Media Research.

What makes the Wired rep think he can discount HALF of the respondents to a consumer survey and a growing format?

It can only be wishful thinking from streaming/VOD backers that hope to supplant a packaged home entertainment business that is still going quite strong.

[Lee]

I respectfully disagree with his article, as more and more companies turn to on demand and streaming media, especially large multi national corporations such as Blockbuster and NetFlix, we're already starting to see a transition away from DVDs, hell with the recent launch of Hulu to, viewers can stream tv programs directly to their laptops or tv sets.

Both Blockbuster and NetFlix have adapted their business model over the last few years moving away from traditional DVD rentals to embrace streaming and download technology and i really do not think it is going to be that much longer before the download to own mindset is firmly planted in to consumers heads when it comes to movies and tv programs as it already has been with music because of stores like Apple where they literally download a media file and own it for life.

Digital media has become the new physical product when it comes to music and it isnt going to be that much longer before digital media becomes the new physical product for DVDs too.

Right now i have a drive connected to our TV with a little over 400 DVDs on it that i burnt over a year ago, each time we want to buy a new movie we'll see if it is available in digital format first to download rather than check it in the stores, if it isnt, only then will we hit somewhere like BestBuy to buy the DVD and when we do buy a DVD it is encoded to digital media almost immediately once we get home and loaded on to the portable drive connected to our TV.

Regards,

Lee

[PornTeam]

my only comment Lee about your post, is for the likes of yourself and myself we are not the norm for customers. We are more able and want to embrace and how the know how to embrace these new technologies. I think as the market changes and the people that are purchasing porn gets younger (than me ) will be prone to purchase a digital product over a hard product.

[Lee]

You know im nnot even sure about that, if that really was the case (about how the more technically adept are embracing digial media over physical media) then piracy wouldnt be as much as a hot button issue as it is now when it comes to torrent sites, there are obviously (if you listen to organizations such as the MPAA) millions upon millions of individuals already using digital media illegally by downloading movies from torrent sites.

I really do feel like physical media products are going the way of the 8-track or cassette.

Unfortunately nothing is going to change unless the DVD producers and movie studios start making their media products more affordable, i mean $18 for a CD? gimme a break, its no wonder the iStore took off as well as it did.

Regards,

Lee

[gaybucks_chip]

I'm in agreement with Chris on this.

There's a large segment of the population that's reasonably tech savvy and can download movies from Netflix and figure out how to use Hulu or Boxee or AppleTV.

But there's an even larger segment that is pretty clueless about such things. We know from speaking to them on the phone or via postal mail that a significant number of our DVD buyers either have no internet access at all, or have very limited access (one computer in the family room where they can't watch porn) and so they want physical product.

Additionally, physical DVD sales worldwide are very strong, and the overall total number of DVD units sold is either flat or slightly increasing on a global level (largely due to emerging non-US markets)

Netflix was smart to begin adapting their business model, but they aren't in any way abandoning physical product; on the contrary, their streaming video model was intended to compete with Blockbuster, which allows in-store returns for people who don't want to wait for their next DVD to show up. Of course, it's likely that physical product will eventually comprise a very tiny portion of movie sales, in the same way that digital downloads of music is now a larger portion of sales than sales at music stores, but, as with music, I believe that physical product will continue to exist for some time yet.

[Squirt]

There's a significant segment of the population that likes having a physical product in their hands.

Amazon is HUGE , and they sell hard goods, but are best known for starting out selling the physical medium of books. Will Kindle change the landscape? possibly

What we have learned is that the segment of the population which identifies well with the physical medium also adapts extremely well to buying that physical medium online instead of at a store. The conundrum is that as these people flock online more and more of them start adapting to the digital medium, some faster then others.

Like any other medium DVD's will become obsolete at some point, but that's a long way off and the demographic for DVD's sales is used to buy, not downloading and stealing, and they also have a lot of money to spend as they are established, unlike the 18-34 demographic.

I wonder how much I could really make on adult DVD sales at this point.

[Titanmen]

Our April DVD/Blu-ray sales we were up 18% in this economy! How? By making high quality content and selling it at a good price. We’ve had to promote our way thru the recession, but are finding if you give the customer a good deal on great content they will spend. Prices on DVD will drop, just like they did with VHS…but they are a long way from being dead.

We are picking up more and more market share in the "packaged media" market because we have fresh new content (not compilations) and Blu-ray. We practically own the gay adult Blu-ray market in the USA and EU. This is still a high end small niche, but it’s a profitable one. When someone buys a Blu-ray player we see them come to our online store and buy 4+ Blu-rays at a time…at regular price! Do I think that the Blu-ray customer will buy “reality” content shot on a couch, probably not. They are a high end customer that wants high production values and “fantasy” porn.

I will admit we have a unique advantage in the packaged media arena because of our established brand name and image. If I were a start-up brand at this time I would not waste my resources trying to compete in the packaged media market, I would focus my resources on digital delivery and sales. The cost of entry into the packaged media market at this time in the product lifecycle is not a smart use of resources for a new company/brand.

[DrChango]

I personally like strolling down the aisles at Best Buy or Target, looking for some random action movie or foreign film that didn't get a theatrical release, walking up to the counter with a few finds in hand (and maybe some junk food to go with it) and go home with my goodies. I don't get the same feeling from getting movies online, though it is more convenient and all.

Just my $.02

With porn, though, I'd have to say online is the way to go for me, but we've been seeing an upsurge in DVD sales with Pink Visual and Male Spectrum, which is "kicking ass" according Cory=)

[derekt]

I agree and disagree.
Our VOD revenue that we earn from Streaming Content Programs such as AEBN and Hot Movies is great. Our VOD revenue pays 100% of our bills, compensates the model cost, and gives us a monthly profit.

The DVD Side of things is great as well. For the past 3 years we have been manufacturing in house and only fulfilling orders from our online stores and we sell wholesale for 3 other online stores. We've definitely made it through the economic hardship. Matter of fact, we've always had DVD Cases "in stock" for the discs. to ship to consumers. Last week was the first time ever that we ran out. I won't go into numbers but DVDs are very strong for us as well.

Very recently, AVN or XBiz put out something in their magazine that 85% of consumers wish to download and own videos. Our DVD Download To Own Site (xxxdto.com) is doing absolutely terrific.
For the month of April, there was 341 downloads.
For the month of May there was 296 downloads.

With this said, consumers will always want DVD Product. They will always want the pay-per-view module. And they will always want the ability to download and own what they want. When these three things go in hand in this industry, it will always earn revenue or sell. This is just my two cents from fact experiences.

[Squirt]

I will admit we have a unique advantage in the packaged media arena because of our established brand name and image. If I were a start-up brand at this time I would not waste my resources trying to compete in the packaged media market, I would focus my resources on digital delivery and sales.

You guys have been saying this since I got in the business 10 years ago.

I am so sick of Titan dinosaurs posting on boards like you're still the kings of Gay porn, you are not. You guys only post on boards when it suits you, you are not a part of our community. You only play in your own click and shut everyone else out. Titan posts always consist of your people bragging about how big you are and who've you've sued lately. get over it

I never personally experienced first hand where Titan was coming from until I got a message on another board from Keith telling me that I couldn't get details about your "anti piracy group" because you are only working with the "largest producers and VOD distributors" ... obviously your click. I don't believe for one second that you'll open up your group for any little guy that wants to join.

You don't give a shit about the little guys so don't post on our boards and give us the advice to stay out of your DVD market. You can't have it both ways. You can't play the elite game and post on the little guys boards without working with the little guys.

I'm motivated now to get into the DVD market just to go against your crap warning and show that a good profit can be made.

[CamCruise]

Well as of now DVD is far from dead.
We have seen more DVD sales this year than last year.
VOD is doing good too, but why only sell to half the people?

What I think I am seeing here is the generation gap at work.
You young guys all see the world as if everyone is 21 years old and knows all the new cutting edge stuff.
But there is even more of us baby boomers out there that still have the clock blinking on their VHS/DVD players.
We still even have some that ask for our older stuff in VHS.
They have learned to play the dvd player at least and they are buying DVD's and renting them too.

So it will be a very long time before the DVD is dead.
But that said its the studios like us that sell to all of you, younger and older, that has it going on.

[Squirt]

This is what I love about you guys. You've been around for ages and adapt. You participate in our community and are one of us without bloviating and bragging whenever you post. You guys are great :thumbsup:

Your input shows that your demographic is alive & well and still paying for porn.. which is important as the younger demographic feels porn should be free.

Well as of now DVD is far from dead.
We have seen more DVD sales this year than last year.
VOD is doing good too, but why only sell to half the people?

What I think I am seeing here is the generation gap at work.
You young guys all see the world as if everyone is 21 years old and knows all the new cutting edge stuff.
But there is even more of us baby boomers out there that still have the clock blinking on their VHS/DVD players.
We still even have some that ask for our older stuff in VHS.
They have learned to play the dvd player at least and they are buying DVD's and renting them too.

So it will be a very long time before the DVD is dead.
But that said its the studios like us that sell to all of you, younger and older, that has it going on.

[basschick]

you know, most of the videos at netflix can't be streamed. in fact, in most cases none of the best videos can be streamed. in some cases, i believe it is licensing issues for the music but i'm sure there are other reasons.

and although i like the convenience of streaming from netflix, i find i prefer DVDs for the menus, the fact that if you pause a streaming movie too long at netflix, the sound goes out of synch with the picture and the fact that isp's are talking about restricting bandwidth. i like the streaming videos because we can watch them immediately if our DVDs haven't arrived, but sometimes with higher quality movies there are some buffering issues and once in a while there's one that just plain won't work.

also when i like a movie i prefer to own it in case it is no longer available to watch now in the future and so i can watch at high quality without worrying about bandwidth or buffering.

[gaybucks_chip]

Squirt,

I disagree with the sentiment as well as the attitude of your post.

I've found the Titan crew to be very forthcoming with information, advice and suggestions, both in posts and in PMs. They have regularly advised webmasters of sites that are stealing content, discussed the problems inherent in going after tube sites and other infringers, provided a lot of helpful information for those of us considering going into the blu-ray marketplace, and offered to provide advice and assitance to anyone wanting to go after content infringers. I've never gotten even the slightest indication that they don't care about smaller producers.

I've always felt like Titan communicates about whom they've gone after about content infringement so the community will be aware of what's going on and who got sued. This is genuine news, and is useful to at least some of us. I'm sure it helps them reduce the infringement of their content by making it widely known that they sue, so I don't see anything wrong with that.

I can also understand that Titan might be reserved in which studios they work with initially on anti-piracy measures; there are literally hundreds of studios, and the vast majority of them sell maybe 200 to 500 units of a given title, or have only a few hundred members at most, so the level of content theft is going to be much lower than a title that sells 3,000 or 10,000 units, or a site with 2,000 or 10,000 members. Since the cost of going after infringement is high, it probably makes sense in the short term to focus on studios/programs that can afford to help finance going after infringers.

I don't know, but I doubt it's about being in or out of a clique, but a business decision that's trying to make the best use of limited resources.

And actually, I think that Titan has offered a very sensible suggestion to people considering entering into the physical product marketplace; stores, and distributors are right now very, very skittish about taking on any new studios because many *existing* studios, including some that have been around for 5 or 6 years, are either disappearing, missing release dates, or not releasing new titles at all.

Distributors and retailers put energy into marketing studios and creating demand for their product. It's difficult to get retailers to take product from new studios, and difficult to get customers to take a chance on a "no-name" studio when the price point of a disc is $30-50 or more at retail. And a distributor (and to lesser extent, a store) doesn't want to start marketing a studio with one or two titles because they simply don't know if there will be 2 or 20 or 300 releases after that... or whether the quality will be any good... or whether buyers will like the product. If so many existing studios are having trouble, it makes sense that new studios will have even more trouble.

So there are a lot of things going against a new studio launching a physical product line right now. I think the advice to start with membership sites or VOD is a very sensible one.

You guys have been saying this since I got in the business 10 years ago.

I am so sick of Titan dinosaurs posting on boards like you're still the kings of Gay porn, you are not. You guys only post on boards when it suits you, you are not a part of our community. You only play in your own click and shut everyone else out. Titan posts always consist of your people bragging about how big you are and who've you've sued lately. get over it

I never personally experienced first hand where Titan was coming from until I got a message on another board from Keith telling me that I couldn't get details about your "anti piracy group" because you are only working with the "largest producers and VOD distributors" ... obviously your click. I don't believe for one second that you'll open up your group for any little guy that wants to join.

You don't give a shit about the little guys so don't post on our boards and give us the advice to stay out of your DVD market. You can't have it both ways. You can't play the elite game and post on the little guys boards without working with the little guys.

I'm motivated now to get into the DVD market just to go against your crap warning and show that a good profit can be made.

[Squirt]

You gave some very useful information in your post regarding the difficulty of getting into the DVD market and I appreciate that. Titans post consisted of bragging about how they are making 18% more in April and that they "practically own the gay adult Blu-ray market in the USA and EU." followed by basically telling everyone not to even try to get into the DVD market.

You and I have differing views about Titan and how they represent themselves and that's ok. It's just frustrating during these economic times to hear a company say DVD isn't dead, they are making 18% more in April then before, but don't bother trying because we have the market cornered. It's also frustrating seeing my content stolen then posts by a company saying they have a solution but I can't be a part of it because I'm not big enough. It all seems somewhat pointless and almost cruel.

I think Chris at Pornteam has a great solution for anyone wanting to enter the DVD market without all this overhead and upfront costs. When I go to DVD I'll go through him. It's good to know there are good people in the DVD market that want to do business and work hard with studios so everyone can make some money.

Squirt,

I disagree with the sentiment as well as the attitude of your post.

I've found the Titan crew to be very forthcoming with information, advice and suggestions, both in posts and in PMs. They have regularly advised webmasters of sites that are stealing content, discussed the problems inherent in going after tube sites and other infringers, provided a lot of helpful information for those of us considering going into the blu-ray marketplace, and offered to provide advice and assitance to anyone wanting to go after content infringers. I've never gotten even the slightest indication that they don't care about smaller producers.

I've always felt like Titan communicates about whom they've gone after about content infringement so the community will be aware of what's going on and who got sued. This is genuine news, and is useful to at least some of us. I'm sure it helps them reduce the infringement of their content by making it widely known that they sue, so I don't see anything wrong with that.

I can also understand that Titan might be reserved in which studios they work with initially on anti-piracy measures; there are literally hundreds of studios, and the vast majority of them sell maybe 200 to 500 units of a given title, or have only a few hundred members at most, so the level of content theft is going to be much lower than a title that sells 3,000 or 10,000 units, or a site with 2,000 or 10,000 members. Since the cost of going after infringement is high, it probably makes sense in the short term to focus on studios/programs that can afford to help finance going after infringers.

I don't know, but I doubt it's about being in or out of a clique, but a business decision that's trying to make the best use of limited resources.

And actually, I think that Titan has offered a very sensible suggestion to people considering entering into the physical product marketplace; stores, and distributors are right now very, very skittish about taking on any new studios because many *existing* studios, including some that have been around for 5 or 6 years, are either disappearing, missing release dates, or not releasing new titles at all.

Distributors and retailers put energy into marketing studios and creating demand for their product. It's difficult to get retailers to take product from new studios, and difficult to get customers to take a chance on a "no-name" studio when the price point of a disc is $30-50 or more at retail. And a distributor (and to lesser extent, a store) doesn't want to start marketing a studio with one or two titles because they simply don't know if there will be 2 or 20 or 300 releases after that... or whether the quality will be any good... or whether buyers will like the product. If so many existing studios are having trouble, it makes sense that new studios will have even more trouble.

So there are a lot of things going against a new studio launching a physical product line right now. I think the advice to start with membership sites or VOD is a very sensible one.