Heavyweight TV makers Panasonic and Sony have respectively secured exclusive 3D Blu-ray titles to be bundled with their 3D TV offerings in recent weeks, but industry experts are concerned that this may actually be detrimental to the growth of 3D TV acceptance among the public.
Avatar 3D, the 2009 blockbuster which opened the eyes of movie studios and TV manufacturers to the lucrativeness of 3D technology, is finally coming to Blu-ray in December this year. However, for an unknown period of time, the Avatar 3D Blu-ray disc will only be available exclusively to owners of Panasonic’s Viera 3D plasma TVs. New buyers of Panasonic 3D TV sets – be it the current VT20 series or the forthcoming GT20 range – and related hardware will receive the Avatar 3D BD disc as part of the purchased package. Existing Panasonic 3DTV owners are also expected to be granted access to this promotional offer, though the details about how this will take shape remain sketchy.
Not to be outdone, Sony also inked a deal with Walt Disney Studio Entertainment to secure exclusivity on Alice In Wonderland and Bolt 3D Blu-ray titles. According to the terms of the agreement, these 3D Blu-ray discs will only be made available for free to owners of Sony Bravia 3D TVs, and will not be sold as standalone titles through any retail outlets.
Such exclusivity agreements between TV manufacturers and film studios are not new. Samsung has an ongoing partnership with DreamWorks Studios, exclusively bundling the Monsters Vs Aliens 3D Blu-ray disc with the company’s 3D TV sets, with How To Train Your Dragon 3D and Shrek 4 (a.k.a. Shrek Forever After) soon to join the fray. In addition to Avatar 3D, Panasonic also holds a couple of 3D Blu-ray exclusives in the form of Coraline and Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs.
The motives behind these deals are not difficult to understand: TV makers wish to tempt potential buyers away from rival brands, while movie studios receive an instant and guaranteed return on their 3D investment. But given the already abject availability of 3D content, even consumers who are originally interested in purchasing a 3D TV may be put off when they see 3D Blu-ray titles being sewn up exclusively left, right and centre by TV makers, leaving only a handful available to buy in retail stores.
This sort of thing is practically an open invitation for piracy. I wonder if we’ll see a rise in BD-R writer sales.
Well this sort of business strategies is what can kill 3D it’s momentum. Keeping content too limited and 3D will die off quickly. The same has happened to any format in the past. I would think companies would have learned by now but…
There are many powerful companies who do not want this format to succeed, most notably Apple & Microsoft… and don’t think Apple doesn’t have a heavy influence on Disney (with Steve Jobs in the boardroom).
It goes more to the blu-ray format itself, than 3D… as 3D is the big differentiator that sets Blu-ray apart. Apple is pushing digital download, and refuses to integrate blu-ray drives in the Macs. Microsoft’s xbox also refuses blu-ray drives, and positions the xbox as a home media center… and doesn’t want to give the PS3 any any competitive advantage. If 3-D becomes popular, neither Apple or Microsoft will have an answer until streaming bandwidth becomes more robust. Netflix is another anti-blu-ray player, but i digress.
It doesn’t help that the one company that can write it’s own destiny with both content and hardware is both greedy and late to the party. Sony arrived last with 3D capable Tv’s and BR players. They’ve done some positive things… but very little.
It’s a shame, because I felt blu-ray was starting to get it’s footing coming out of the 2009 holiday shopping season, only for the electronics industry to start shooting it’s mouth off about 3D. This ruined momentum, as persons of interest decided to hold off on TV/BR purchases until new 3D capable equipment became available. Factor in about 6 months of ‘coming soon’, firmware, and thoughts of “should i wait until the 2nd generation of de-bugged hardware”.
We finally have all the TV, BD player, and (don’t forget) a/v receiver mfgs producing 3D ready components… and now the studios are pretending it’s too risky/expensive to participate. Yeah right, but they’ll still fund obvious box office bomb projects like Jonah Hex and the Last Airbender.
3D probably has 3-6 months to generate enough demand to force studios into production… so I feel it falls to Sony. Sony should push out low cost glasses, players, and PS3 games, a few cheap TV models, and a steady stream of movies they have license to produce. Ofcourse they’ve always failed see past their own controlling greed to do so in the past, so who knows. Have they learned from betamax/vhs, mini-disc/mp3, blu-ray/hd-dvd, and now blu-ray/digital-download??? ..we’ll see.