Is Blu-ray's 'BD Live' Dead?
Executives acknowledge that early Blu-ray interactive features may have been difficult to understand.
By Swanni
Washington, D.C. (January 26, 2009) -- For roughly two years, the Hollywood studios have heavily promoted the interactive features available on Blu-ray high-def discs such as accessing ringtones, games, movie trailers and other content from the Net.
Known as BD Live, the ITV features have been prominently featured in Blu-ray ad campaigns and in-box promotions. However, studio executives are now acknowledging that BD Live, which requires an Internet connection (and some might argue, a tech savvy viewer), may have been too much for consumers to comprehend.
So, the studios are going back to the drawing board with new BD Live features designed to find a larger audience.
If the initial experience with a feature wasn't immediately intuitive to people, they'd just move on," Miguel Casillas, a Lionsgate senior vice president, tells Video Business. "Users weren't saying they didn't like BD Live, because uber-fans want to get close to the films they love. But it just needs to be easy and fast.
Video Business reports that BD Live features in 2009 will be "better integrated, easier to use, more plentiful and more glitzy than last year."
By example, Lionsgate plans to launch a BD Live portal, called Lionsgate Live, where viewers will be able to access games, ringtones and chats with the film's director.
Zane Vella, who has worked on BD Live for 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, tells Video Business that he agrees that the studios may have frighten early BD Live users by requiring them to register before using the features.
There is going to be more experimentation with what you can do with BD Live before registration, says Vella. It will give people more access. Registration can be a hurdle to a seamless consumer experience.
Sony and Disney also told the publication that they plan to refine the BD Live experience.
Commentary:
Okay, I've been telling these studio idiots for almost two years that consumers couldn't care less about the interactive features on Blu-ray discs. They just want to watch the movie, not sit there downloading ringtones and playing little games with themselves or others.
But the studio executives have been too smart for their own good; they thought -- and they continue to think -- that they can persuade the American public to interact with their televisions.
It ain't going to happen, guys, so give it up.
Concentrate instead on the obvious superior benefits of owning a Blu-ray player -- great picture and great sound. And stop talking about the ITV stuff because all you're doing is confusing a potential customer.
After two years, the studio executives apparently now have enough data to see that BD Live has been a failure. However, instead of accepting the failure and moving on, they now will "refine" the experience.
Well, refine this, fellas: If you keep pushing ITV, you will just alienate and confuse millions of possible buyers.
