Hope this is not TOO much to post. Published by: Broadband Properties
August 2003 excerpts
In tangible vs. abstract, pay per view has been around for nearly 10 years and arguably has become nearly as convenient as video on demand, yet after 10 years it commands a mere fraction of the after market for movies on video. In fact, pay per view’s true value is not movies at all but rather special events like boxing matches, world wrestling, and other closed sporting events. The record revenue from a single pay per view event was $100 million –for a boxing match. This value will continue regardless of the success of any on demand video innovation.
Similarly in the consumer’s mind, they will always believe that DVDs will be of higher quality than anything they buy electronically.
There is also very little standardization among electronic media choices. There are no less than 6 different transmission/encoding formats, 4 different purchase options, 4 different transportation service providers, and numerous proprietary hardware and technologies in play. Compare this with DVD where you have essentially one standard along with multiple ways and means to purchase and play the content.
The DVD player has been called the fastest growing consumer electronics device in history. Over 43 million DVD players were shipped in 2002 and it is predicted that by 2006 over 125 million DVD players will be shipping.
Another problem for digital set top boxes is that DVD players are everywhere – they now come standard with all new computers, all new game consoles, and even family friendly automobiles. The continual rise in DVD sales creates an overwhelming market for the packaged media business that is only becoming stronger and more powerful as the ultimate convenience that consumers are buying and continue to buy is “portability”.
US News Cover story 12/29/03
Videos without late fees
By now, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings was supposed to be a dead man. You don't go head to head in renting out DVDs against the likes of Wal-Mart and Blockbuster and live to tell about it.
Yet 2004 will find Hastings not just alive but thriving. Netflix shares have more than tripled in value the past year to around $45, third-quarter revenue jumped 77 percent to $72 million, and its subscriber base, now 1.3 million, is growing at about 125,000 a month. To top it all off, Netflix is the Silicon Valley darling of an anticipated billion-dollar market in digital movies if downloads over the Internet ever become feasible and popular.
Yet 2004 will find Hastings not just alive but thriving. Netflix shares have more than tripled in value the past year to around $45, third-quarter revenue jumped 77 percent to $72 million, and its subscriber base, now 1.3 million, is growing at about 125,000 a month. To top it all off, Netflix is the Silicon Valley darling of an anticipated billion-dollar market in digital movies if downloads over the Internet ever become feasible and popular.
Netflix expects to offer downloads, but because they still take hours even with broadband, Hastings says mail rentals will hold sway for the foreseeable future. The good news, he says, is that Wal-Mart "doesn't enter less-than-billion-dollar markets. We've got lots of growth ahead."
17 October 2003 Video games
"The games industry is booming, with the new generation consoles as the major contributing factor," says Michael James, the editor of New Age Gaming, an industry magazine.
The video games industry is growing faster than the movie, recording and book publishing industries because it offers "some of the most compelling, stimulating, and challenging entertainment available", says James.
James McDonald, games buyer at retail group New Clicks - owners of Musica and CD Wherehouse - says CDs and DVDs are the only entertainment items that still outsell gaming software.
"But this time next year it will be a different story ," he says.
McDonald says the electronic games industry is so big that musicians are now launching their music tracks on games before releasing albums. Hollywood actors are also doing voice-overs for computer games.
"Games software is our number one seller, and the bulk of the buyers are between 16 and 30 years old. We do have the 40-plus also buying games such as golf and flight simulators," says Ferriman.
Wednesday, July 23, 2003
Regarding the new type of Games on the horizon.
You have to make the right choices and anticipate the consequences of your actions, advises another participant, explaining that the game's designers at Edmonton-based BioWare Corp. deliberately created scenarios where opportunities are closed off to those who fail to think ahead.
This kind of concern for moral choices and consequences is something new in the universe of video gaming, where trigger-happy contestants are traditionally rewarded for shooting first and never asking questions.
It represents a new generation of sophisticated electronic games, created for a maturing and rapidly expanding audience, that are transforming gaming consoles from an adolescent diversion into a mainstream entertainment medium with artistic integrity and a social conscience.
"They are taking gaming to a whole new level," says Ryan Mugford, director of marketing in Canada for Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox gaming console.
Over the past few years, electronic gaming has stealthily crept up on mainstream media, growing to the point where analysts' reports show that annual revenue from console gaming -- more than $10-billion (U.S.) in the United States, more than $1-billion (Canadian) in Canada -- now exceeds movie box office receipts. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, which included video games this year for the first time in its annual report on the global entertainment and media industry, forecasts that the category will expand at an 11-per-cent compound annual rate to $35.8-billion (U.S.) by 2007, making it the fastest-growing industry segment.
Ray Muzyk, joint chief executive officer at BioWare, says games developers must now respond to "more demanding consumers who want increased complexity and deeper story lines." Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic responds to this demand, he says, by letting players explore issues of morality as they develop their characters into dark- or light-side Jedi with actions that affect the world around them.
US video rentals resisting strong competition
Story filed: 8 December 2003
Complimenting the incredible growth in sales of DVDs and despite the challenges from competing technologies such as video-on-demand, video rental remains the American public's favourite way to view new release movies, said Bo Andersen, president of the Video Software Dealers Association.
"The home video industry is offering the American public a choice between renting and buying, and the public is choosing both," Andersen noted.
The Games Of 2004
12/23/2003 4:32 PM
As another year comes and goes, it’s kind of sad in the video game world for a few moments. It’s actually quiet. All of the big holiday titles from 2003 have shipped. There’s not a lot of massive news, few announcements, and generally a small amount of game releases. But that’s only for a few brief moments.
2003 was a great year in gaming, and 2004 is waiting in the wings to rock gamers' hearts around the world. You better get busy and beat all the games you got this holiday season because it won’t be too long until the heavies come out in 2004.
Game Informer Online takes a look at the big name titles for each respective console, and gives you a general idea of when they will be released. We can’t guarantee that each game will release when we say they will, because as you can tell by history, games change dates all the time.
We decided to leave out the games that will be hitting across multiple consoles, and focus on console specific titles. But even so, there’s some serious multi-platform titles about to grace which ever system you favor, including Call of Duty: Finest Hour, X-Men Legends, StarCraft Ghost, EA and ESPN Sports franchises, Leisure Suit Larry: Magna ### Laude, Lord of the Rings: Battle For Middle Earth, Spider Man 2, James Bond: Everything or Nothing, Driv3r, Mafia, NFL Street, Star Wars: Battlefront, and a pile of other games. It’s actually pretty scary - and we're not even close to E3 2004 yet.
Mark MacDonald, executive editor of
Electronic Gaming Monthly, pointed to Electronic Arts' spring smash, Def Jam Vendetta, a wrestling game with hip-hop overtones based on licenses from the Def Jam record label, as one sign of games' increasing crossover power. He also pointed to games such as the current bestseller, True Crime: Streets of LA, which features rap star Snoop Dogg as well as voiceovers by actors including Christopher Walken and Quentin Tarantino movie veteran Michael Madsen.
"Games are seeping into all of these new areas and the broader culture," MacDonald said. "People are discovering new crossover potential with music, as they have with movies for a while now. And with celebrities starring in games, it seems like you can't have a major game now without voice-overs from at least one or two major celebrities."
11/25/03 A Rosy Picture for DVD
The picture for DVD couldn't be better. In the United Stats there are now over 50 million set top DVD players. This number is expected to grow to 60 million by years end. When you add other devices which can play DVDs (including PC's, PS2 and X-box) that number jumps up to between 90 and 100 million DVD capable devices. In 2002 there were 1.14 Billion DVDs shipped world wide and the average home bought 15 DVDs. For the first time DVD has overtaken VHS in the rental space. During the week ending June 15, 2003, for the first time ever, more DVDs were rented than VHS videocassettes. According to VSDA VidTrac, 28.2 million DVDs were rented while 27.3 million VHS cassettes were rented. DVD Rental stores also are singing the DVD praises which is now a $9 Billion industry. Old style DVD Rental companies like Blockbuster and Hollywood Video have more to celebrate (though renters won't be crazy to hear this) as 25% of DVD renters are reported to pay late fees at least HALF of the time they rent DVDs and in 2002 Video Rental companies collected an estimated $1 Billion in late fees - yes, that's Billion with a 'B'. The explosion in DVD doesn't end there. DVD is seeing growth into the portable market, into cars, dorm rooms, playrooms and multiple rooms in the home. Twenty-nine percent of US homes now have two or more DVD players. Barreling full steam ahead DVD is expected to continue to have 'double digit growth' from now until 2007.
November 23, 2003:
Hollywood studios are banking on huge holiday films like The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The Cat in the Hat and The Last Samurai to make their years, but no movie -- or movie studio -- will match the entertainment muscle of Nintendo's Game Boy Advance according to company predictions. In fact, the Game Boy Advance line in 2003 is tracking to exceed the year's total box office revenues for any Hollywood studio. That's right: Hardware and games for the Game Boy Advance are projected to exceed $1.5 billion in revenue in the United States, an estimate beyond the domestic estimates for any Hollywood movie maker.
"Game Boy Advance is the envy of the entertainment world," says George Harrison, Nintendo of America's senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications. "Not only does our 'studio' boast a library of more than 550 titles, but these hits get played over and over again."
All Press Releases for November 6, 2003
Christmas video game sales soar towards record: Who buys them, who plays them and who creates these leaps into fantasy? You'll be surprised!
Christmas video game sales soar towards record Adults buy them Adults play them The highly secret world of video game development Who creates these leaps into fantasy?
Parksville BC Canada,(PRWEB) November 4, 2003: Coming off a banner year for Christmas sales in 2002, October 2003 sales figures reveal that the North American video game industry is headed towards an even better holiday marketing season in 2003. Sales could exceed 10 billion this year.
Adults buy them Adults play them.
Contrary to popular belief, it's not only kids who play video games. According to the Interactive Digital Software Association, sixty percent of all North Americans age six and older, or about 150 million people, play computer and video games. The average age of a game player is 28 years old and, forty-three percent of game players are women. The vast majority of people who play video games do so with friends and family. Ninety percent of all games are purchased by adults over the age of 18.
The highly secret world of video game development
Enter a world that keeps tightly guarded secrets about what's being developed and why, as companies continually vie for a larger share of the billions in annual sales of computer and video game software.
Video rental market booming
In a time of war, people in broadcasting want to know what people are going to watch. What was anticipated was that people would watch coverage very extensively and other types of programming (movies, video games, reality shows, etc.) would be forgotten. That happened in the first 72 hours. But after that, normal patterns resumed. And, in fact, video rentals are booming right now. In spite of - or maybe because of - the war, the numbers are huge. People want diversion from the war, and they are getting it from movies. Netflix, the subscription video service, has even crossed the million-member mark in recent days. People see these services as a fixed expenditure, so they know exactly what they will pay. And they don’t have to leave their home or deal with unanticipated late fees. The video game market is also booming. It is actually even bigger than the video movie market these days. And, according to the New York Times, Netflix has inspired about 15 to 20 video game companies that have started their own subscription rental businesses using a similar business model. Video games are much more expensive than movies, at about $50 or $60 a pop. And, sometimes you get bored playing the same game over and over. So, renting games has become a booming business.
from the August 29, 2003 edition
Off to college to major in ... video games?
'Video game studies' may sound oxymoronic, but academia is beginning to take it seriously.
By Mark Clayton | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
This fall, Southern Methodist University in Dallas will enroll 32 students in its new 18-month master's level certificate program in video-game design. Shawnee State University in Portsmouth, Ohio, is offering for the first time a full-blown undergraduate major in "game and simulation arts" as part of its bachelor of fine arts degree program.
A few big-name universities are toying with the serious side of video games. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Georgia Institute of Technology, and Carnegie Mellon University offer curricula on video-game criticism, games as educational tools, and game design.
Georgia Institute of Technology started a PhD program in digital media and a master's in information design and technology, in which many students are pursuing video-game design.
Market For Used DVDs Continues to Grow
Accounts for 10% of Sales in Many Outlets
October 14, 2003
Video Business is reporting that more and more retailers who sell or rent DVDs are also selling "previously owned" or "previously rented" DVDs. A survey by the Video Software Dealers Association found that high profit stores gained a higher percentage of sales from merchandising used DVDs and tapes than did average stores. Another survey of video stores found that 60% of stores generated 10% or more of their income from sales of previously owned or rented product.
The quick resale of rented video product actually gives independently owned stores a window of opportunity in their competition with the Blockbusters of the world, since the big chains are often prevented from selling off inventory for a specific period of time because of deals made with the studios regulating how quickly the chains can shed their rental inventory. Retailers who specialize in renting and selling niche video product, such as anime, have also done well with an aggressive program for selling off excess rental inventory, and in catering to customers who want to "trade in" their old titles for new ones. The simplicity and robust nature of DVDs, which are difficult to damage under normal conditions of use, make them ideal for resale.
Forget billboards; forget Super Bowl ads...
These days just about anybody with something to sell to teens is doing it through games. Nike, Pepsico, McDonald's, Nokia, and ESPN are only a few of the companies now using games to sell their products. Forrester Research, a firm in Cambridge, Mass., that studies the use of new technologies, predicts advergaming will be a billion-dollar-a-year industry by 2005.
A paragraph from Fortune mag:
Saturday, September 6, 2003
Videogames: Next Big Thing
"Music? Sales down. Hollywood? Hit or miss. Tech? Flat." So, what are the options? Writes Fortune:
Games are becoming culturally pervasive, stealing time and dollars from other consumer entertainment options like movies, television, and, ahem, magazines. On average an American will spend 75 hours this year playing videogames, more than double the amount of time spent gaming in 1997 and eclipsing that of DVD or tape rentals today, according to market research firm Veronis Suhler Stevenson. Of the other forms of entertainment, only Internet usage is expected to grow faster than videogames, a fact that the videogame makers plan to use to their advantage.
And with time comes money. Though the global videogame market was just $28 billion in 2002, some people think it's on track to rival the movie, music, or television industries, perhaps by the end of this decade. Music sales have been falling in recent years, the moviegoing experience hasn't changed that much since Gone With the Wind, and network TV is on the skids. The games business has been racking up double-digit growth rates for the past decade, even through the recent tech slump.
Electronic Arts wants to become the "biggest and best entertainment company in the world", according to its CEO Lawrence Probst III. Adds Fortune: "Its stock recently hit an all-time high of $90, making the $13.2-billion-market-cap company the world's fourth-largest software maker, behind Microsoft, Oracle, and SAP."
Game Reporter: Mark Perry
11/18/2003
[UPDATE] Survey of console gamers comes up with a mixed bag of preferences. GameSpot talks to the survey's lead reseacher, Billy Pidgeon.
Today, game industry analysts from the Zelos Group released findings that paint an interesting-but-complicated picture of today's typical console gamer.
- Game rentals add to the industry's overall bottom line. The study reports that about one third of respondents indicate that they rent games and these users have a high propensity to use rentals as a means to inform purchase decisions. Hardcore gamers are more likely to rent games than their avid and casual gamer counterparts. Almost half of hardcore gamers indicate they rent at least one game a month, and almost 20 percent say they rent five or more.
GS: What is driving the increased reliance or interest in renting games? Is it high retail prices? Do rentals steal revenues from retail sales or do rentals compliment and drive sales?
BP: Rental is a reliable and inexpensive method to try a game before buying it. Rental is a negative for inferior games and for short games that can be easily finished within a rental period and offer little replay value. Game rentals bring in big revenues for rental outlets and can complement and drive sale for good games with depth and replay value.
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC
By 2007, the company forecasts, software and hardware for games will be worth about $56 billion in North America alone. Put simply, video gaming is the world's fastest growing form of entertainment. "Nobody would be in this business if they weren't making money," says Lisa Webber, Microsoft Canada's marketing manager of PC games.
There are more profits on the horizon. Technological advances in computer chip development enable companies to put faster console systems and games with better graphics out year after year, so consumers keep having to upgrade their systems and buy updated titles if they want to enjoy the latest and greatest. Currently, Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo dominate the console industry. They sell their systems at cost or even at a loss, and then make their profits on the games.
Video game console growth seen boosting software
11 November 2003, 3:58pm ET
By Franklin Paul
NEW YORK, Nov 11 (Reuters) - Video game software sales are expected to be strong this holiday season, driven by enthusiasts hunger for new games and the swelling number of consoles popping up in consumer living rooms.
Analysts remained optimistic, despite the lack of a blockbuster title like last year's "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City," which sold close to a million copies on its first day in October 2002.
"We are looking at an installed base (of consoles) that is 55 percent larger than it was...last year," Jeffrey Griffiths, Chief Executive of retailer Electronics Boutique said at Harris Nesbitt Gerard's "Playtime" conference in New York last week. "The size of the installed base should be enough to drive a nice increase in software sales."
Although console sales growth has slowed after three explosive years, industry specialists said the demand for new software remains impressive and is expected to boost sales.
NPD Group, a market research firm, has said that software will be the primary near-term driver for the gaming industry, as owners of the near 80 million boxes grab new titles for their machines.
More evidence of the DVD boom came from
the video rental industry. As of July 21, consumer spending on DVD rentals surpassed spending on DVD rentals for all of last year, according to the Video Software Dealers Association, a trade group based in Encino, Calif.
For the weeks ended Jan. 6 through July 21, a 29-week period rental revenues hit $1.47 billion, an increase of $7 million or 5 percent over the $1.4 billion revenue for all of last year, according to the association.
A cable channel devoted to video games
For July 02, 2003
Video game players now have something else to do in front of a TV screen than just shoot asteroids, pilot a starship or steal a car.
A new channel called G-Four is showing up on local cable TV outlets around the country.
G-Four offers a daily news show called "Pulse," a review segment and even a show detailing the tricks that are programmed into games -- known as "cheats." It lets players do things such as extend their virtual lives or make bobble-heads of players in a basketball video game.
G-Four also has an on-line component giving viewers a chance to chat live and post messages on a bulletin board. There is a live show where the hosts respond to comments and questions from the Web.
Charles Hirschhorn founded the network and says he realized when he was working at Disney that there was a need for a channel to cater to the age group that plays video games.
G-Four has been on the air for a year and it's available to eleven million people.
December 02, 2003
Video Rental Shows ``Extraordinary Strength'': Despite Growth of DVD Sales and Video-on-Demand, Rentals Hold Their Own
ENCINO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 2, 2003--Complementing the incredible growth in sales of DVDs and despite the challenges from competing technologies such as video-on-demand, video rental remains the American public's favorite way to view new release movies, Bo Andersen, president of the Video Software Dealers Association, said today. Andersen noted that the total number of DVDs and VHS cassettes rented in 2003 will be approximately the same as in 2002.
"Rather than seeing a flat video rental market as a sign of weakness, we see it as a sign of extraordinary strength," Andersen said. "With DVDs offered for purchase at remarkably attractive prices and cable and satellite companies aggressively promoting video-on-demand, one would expect pundits to speculate that the rental market would see a dramatic drop. But, in fact, that drop has not happened."
VSDA noted that:
-- DVD sales have seen double-digit increases in the past several years, but those sales have not significantly eroded the rental market. In the first half of 2003, combined DVD and VHS sales were up 27%, compared with the first half of 2002. Rentals were up 3.5% over the same period, and currently are about the same as they were in 2002. "The home video industry is offering the American public a choice between renting and buying, and the public is choosing both," Andersen noted.
-- DVD players have fallen dramatically in price and are on the top of all the gift recommendation lists this holiday season. "With DVD players falling below $30 in some instances, many lower-income households - who are more likely to rent than buy - will make the switch to DVD this quarter," Andersen predicted.
-- Many rental stores are generating an increasing share of their revenue from previously viewed DVDs, which are extremely popular. According to VSDA's most recent "benchmarking" report on independent video stores, the typical respondent video store generated approximately 14% of its revenue from sales of new and previously viewed videos (primarily DVDs), which is greater than the 11% of revenue generated from extended viewing fees (a.k.a. "late fees").
-- Video rental remains relatively constant, even though other entertainment options - such as broadcast television and theatrical admissions - have suffered decreases this year.
November 2003, Zelos Group
Partner and Senior Analyst -
Billy Pidgeon is a fifteen year veteran of the interactive electronic entertainment industry.
Research Associate -
For the last four years David Hu has been involved in marketing in the Videogame software industry.
Game Rental Business Adds Ancillary Revenues and Impacts Sales. About one third of respondents indicate that they rent games and these users have a high propensity to use rentals as a means to inform purchase decisions. Moreover, hardcore gamers are more likely to rent games than their avid and casual gamer counterparts. Almost half of hardcore gamers indicate they rent at least one game a month, and almost 20 percent say they rent 5 or more.
Consoles Can be Positioned as General Purpose Entertainment Appliances. With over 50 percent of survey respondents favoring DVD playback as the number one additional console feature, consumers do not have difficultly viewing the game console as a general purpose entertainment appliance.
Solitary Gaming Remains Prevalent. Despite interest in playing against others in an online environment, gaming remains largely a solitary activity and games that rely on social interaction have a relatively narrow addressable market. Over 73 percent of respondents claim to play games alone almost always or most of the time, and only 2 percent claim that they never play alone.
Nov/Dec exerpts, Yahoo Entertainment news...
Top cable networks like Spike TV, MTV and Game Show Network are focusing on original programming that revolves around video games in an effort to regain the loyalty of an audience segment coveted by advertisers.
If the nation's largest cable carrier, Comcast, purchases TechTV -- a transaction that has not been confirmed by either party, despite widespread media speculation -- video game programming likely would get a further boost. If a purchase is finalized, Comcast is expected to combine San Francisco-based TechTV, which reaches 40 million homes, with its Los Angeles-based video game channel, G4, which reaches 11 million homes. Such a combination would give dedicated video game programming a much larger TV presence.
Several factors, beyond money, are fueling Hollywood agencies' current interest. Led by PlayStation and PlayStation 2, and including Xbox and GameCube, there are more than 60 million video-game consoles in U.S. homes today. More than 168 million Americans play video games.
While the U.S. market is the fastest-growing sector, it's only a part of a worldwide audience that plays video games. Couple this global reach with an elusive 18- to 34-year-old male population that spends more time playing games than watching TV, and you can see what's grabbing the attention of major Hollywood players.
"There's a whole new generation of Hollywood producers, writers, directors and actors that grew up playing games," explained Boesky, the video-game agent for International Creative Management. "These people understand games, they play games, and they often want to become involved in games."
U.S. Electronic Media and Entertainment
Pub Time: 2003/04
Games revenues from interactive TV are forecast to climb from only $58 million in 2002 to $987 million by 2010. The majority of the growth will occur after 2006 when broadband networks become more commonplace
Power of product placement in video games -
Jan 9 2004, 10:29 AM
Whether it's Dole bananas in "Super Monkey Ball" or SoBe soda machines through "Splinter Cell", it is estimated that product placement in video games will account for hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue by 2005. Also, according to the article, "Studies indicate 30% of in-game ads are recalled in the short-term, which is impressive. Even more amazing is the fact that 15% are recalled after five months - unheard of in advertising." Not too shabby for an industry that used to beg companies to place their products in their games.
Posted on: Thursday, January 8, 2004 -
Professional athletes these days love to play video games. They live to be in them. Most of all, they dream of being the featured guy in the latest red-hot game.
"That's what is important to these guys now," former Suns coach Frank Johnson said. "It used to be everybody worried about money, shoe contracts and commercials. Now it's those (video games)."
Twenty-five years ago, making the cover of a Wheaties box signaled an athlete's arrival in the big time. Today it's being a "box cover athlete" on a video game.
Sports video games continue to be among the hottest-selling entertainment items in the country, with star players from the four major sports leagues serving as pitchmen.
The games last year generated at least $1 billion in sales in the United States, according to industry observers, and capture about one-fifth of the entire video-game market.
Video games have enhanced the bottom lines of all four major sports leagues and their players, along with the software companies. The NBA, for example, has seen its video-game revenues more than double in the past five years, while players who appear on the cover of video games can command six-figure sponsorship fees.
While sports video games are a $1 billion industry, action games have recently overtaken them in market share.
November 2003...
Billy Pidgeon, Partner & Senior Analyst
David Hu, Research Associate
No Major Shake-up This Holiday Season. With 18 percent of 1,000 console gamers indicating that they plan to acquire a PlayStation 2 console, and 14 percent expecting to purchase or receive an XBox by the end of 2004, this year's holiday buying pattern will not dramatically impact the market share of major vendors. Zelos Group expects that Nintendo may erode Microsoft's lead due to increased GameCube sales spurred by the decision to cut prices.
Game Rental Business Adds Ancillary Revenues and Impacts Sales. About one third of respondents indicate that they rent games and these users have a high propensity to use rentals as a means to inform purchase decisions. Moreover, hardcore gamers are more likely to rent games than their avid and casual gamer counterparts. Almost half of hardcore gamers indicate they rent at least one game a month, and almost 20 percent say they rent 5 or more.
Solitary Gaming Remains Prevalent. Despite interest in playing against others in an online environment, gaming remains largely a solitary activity and games that rely on social interaction have a relatively narrow addressable market. Over 73 percent of respondents claim to play games alone almost always or most of the time, and only 2 percent claim that they never play alone.
USA TODAY January 08,2004 -
Check the year-end reports from the various sectors of the entertainment industry, and it's clear that DVD stands alone as an unqualified sensation. It's such a success that it might even be eclipsing -- and cutting into -- other leisure pursuits.
Total DVD revenue last year hit .5 billion -- .1 billion in sales, .4 billion in rentals -- according to new industry totals from market tracking firm Adams Media Research.
Each DVD amounts to a consumer devoting money and time to watching a movie at home, sometimes in lieu of going to a theater or watching TV or listening to a CD.
Nearly every other area of entertainment -- TV watching, CD buying, moviegoing -- is showing a downward trend:
* Moviegoers spent 1% less at the box office last year (.17 billion) than in 2002 (.27 billion); overall, theaters sold 100 million fewer movie tickets. It was the first time in more than a decade that Hollywood failed to set a box office record.
* Music sales continued a three-year slump, though the rate of decline has slowed. The industry took solace in that CD album sales dropped 2% to .5 billion last year, compared with 9% in 2002.
* Television executives are arguing with audience trackers over the mysterious disappearance of chunks of the viewing audience. Overall, the six major networks have lost about 8% of their viewers, compared with fall 2002. The biggest drop has come among young men, particularly ages 18 to 24 (down 23%).
Sun., Jan. 4, 2004, 7:10pm PT
DVD-by-mail renter shows 74% sub growth...
Is online DVD rentailer Netflix ready for Main Street? Having already wowed Wall Street with 400%-plus stock price gains in 2003, the subscription-based DVD movie rental club is quickly proving that its model not only works, but has plenty of room for growth.
ENCINO, CALIFORNIA (January 5, 2004) …
Noting the numerous DVD sales and rental records set in 2003, the Video Software Dealers Association (VSDA) today declared that 2003 was "the year of DVD" in the home video market.
"We have simply run out of superlatives to describe the DVD phenomenon," said VSDA President Bo Andersen. "It's bigger and better than anyone imagined it could be."
Consumers spent record amounts purchasing and renting DVDs in 2003. Adams Media Research estimates that consumer purchases of DVDs totaled more than $12 billion in 2003, up $3.9 billion, or 46%, from 2002. Consumers spent an additional $4.3 billion renting DVDs in 2003 (through December 21, 2003), up 53% from the same period last year, according to Home Video Essentials (a product of Rentrak Corporation). The number of DVDs rented also set a record in 2003. Home Video Essentials reports that, through December 21, 2003, approximately 1.3 billion DVDs were rented during the year - up 55% from the same period in 2002.
Thursday, January 8, 2004
DVD's success steals the show - USA Today
USA Today looks at the ongoing advance of DVDs as well as the fact that their success is coming at the expense of other forms of entertainment. DVD revenue totalled $17.5 billion last year, with $12.1 going to DVD sales and $5.4 billion for rentals. The total spent on DVDs surpasses the amount spent on movie tickets, video games and music CDs. Time spent watching DVDs also cuts into time spent doing other activities, particularly watching broadcast television. Tom Adams of Adams Media Research: "If the average home buys 15 movies a year -- and the more avid consumer buys 20 -- and on average you watch them twice, that is 80 hours a year, a couple hours a week gone to watching DVD movies. Throw in an extra feature, and it's well over 100 hours a year."
Fool.com news article...
By Rick Aristotle Munarriz (TMF Edible)
January 22, 2004
If you had to browse through the 15,000 available DVD titles from Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) to sum up its first two publicly traded years, would you go with It's a Wonderful Life or Some Like It Hot? It's hard to argue with the company's success. It is a thriving online renter of films with profitability and 1.5 million loyal customers.
While margins dipped as the company beefed up its content library and acquisition costs inched higher as it launched televised ad campaigns, the quarter was encouraging. Top-line growth accelerated in the fourth quarter relative to the year as a whole. Monthly subscriber churn fell. In other words, despite the emergence of competitors such as Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) and Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI), more people are sticking with Netflix.
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