Blockbuster Blu-ray announcement: Master Thread - Page 5

It has long seemed to me that both formats launched too early - HD about 6 months BD about a year. With HD's haste to market, BD's hand was forced even before specs were finalized (1.1 is probably where they would have preferred to start, since the networking strategy (2.0) was meant to be optional.

The loss-leader model of game systems has been utilized to hold the fort while BD is getting to where it wanted to be at launch (production kinks tested, chipsets finished), though I still believe hardware prices have been forced lower faster than they wished. I see 1.1 players come November as the point where the push from BD will truly begin.

ted

5,803 stores from a total of how many? 100,000 rental stores in the US? We need a percentage, stores numbers are not useful (unless you got all of them).

MichaelHDDVD: No wrong plan of action, more like go out and rent more HD-DVDs from Blockbuster to send a better message. It seems people have been renting more Blu-Rays than HD-DVDs... Hence sparking Blockbusters move.... Who knows, but I bet this War is going to be a ton of small nasty skirmishes over the summer....

tvted: Ironically more and more people are choosing the PS3 as a Blu-Ray player of choice when it comes to movies from what I have been seeing. I mean who cares what hardware your using for playback, as long as the Blu-Ray movies start flying off the shelves that's all that matters. PS3 or not..... It think you are right on on hardware being pushed low to win this war, I just hope when it is won, that they don't jack up the prices again.

Here is an article that discusses their performance of 2006 as far as revenue and new subs and such:

http://www.videobusiness.com/article...html?q=Netflix

Hard to say how much of a market share BB still has. In the US DVD's are rented through all kinds of storefronts as well as Netflix. Even McDonalds rents DVD's.

Revenue in the last quarter was $1.37 billion, but that also includes movie and video game sales


Blockbuster loss widens on declining margins

By William Spain
Last Update: 8:20 AM ET May 2, 2007

CHICAGO (MarketWatch)-- Blockbuster Inc. reported a wider first-quarter loss Wednesday as margins at the video rental chain fell sharply. The company reported a net loss of $46.4 million, or 26 cents a share, vs. a loss of $1.9 million, or 3 cents in the year-ago period. Revenue, meanwhile, came in up 5.4% to $1.47 billion even as the company's gross margin for the first quarter decreased to 51.7% from 56.5%. The average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Financial
to lose 16 cents a share on revenue of $1.37 billion. Separately, the company said that it has sold its Games Station Limited, a specialty games retailer in the U.K. to The Game Group PLC for about $150 million in cash, most of which will be used to pay down debt.

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/stor...id=aolpfaolpf1

I am sure Blockbuster won't miss Michael HD DVD's money at all...Change your name to MichaelBlu Ray and I am sure they'll welcome him!

It is about studios. Blu Ray has them
It's about mainstream electronics retailers favoring Blu Ray. Best Buy is in Sony's pocket
It's about renting, as the majority of the public prefers $5 to watch a movie rather than $25. Now another piece in the puzzle has been placed as Sony has woed Blockbuster to BD exclusivity.

It's like a chess match and the Blu pieces are coming into an offensive grouping around HD DVD.

at my best buy they are still the same, but my local Circuit citys have been pushing HD-DVD more then bluray

Here is a newer article concerning Netflix first qtr. of 2007 performance

http://www.videobusiness.com/article...html?q=Netflix

Motley Fool gets into BB issues with Total Access, competing with NFLX: http://www.fool.com/investing/genera...ooks-back.aspx

BB jumps 4.53% on Friday:
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=BBI

Still no HDs at my local BB...

Thanks. So we got:

Netflix Total Revenue for the year 2006: $996.7 million

Total Rental Market Revenue for the year 2006: $7.5 billions
(according to http://www.dvdinformation.com/News/press/CES010807.htm)

So we get 13.4% of the Rental Market Share for Netflix, right?

Does anybody have the 2006 revenue numbers for Blockbuster?

If the total market for DVD rental is say $8.5 Billion for 2007. Netflix is projecting they will get $1.26 Billion of it.

So what was BB's total revenue for 2006 and how much are they projecting for 2007? Someome else can look this stuff up.

OK . . . here are some numbers for BB for 2006:

For full year 2006, Blockbuster's revenue was down 3.5% to $5.52 billion. The decrease was attributed to store closings and a 2.1% decrease in worldwide same-store sales. Worldwide same-store sales included the positive impact of $105.5 million in increased revenue from the online rental service.

Exactly. We need the market percentage, so we can know how much rental market share HD DVD has really lost.

$1.26 Billion/$8.5 Billion = 14.8% Netflix marketshare. Is the Blockbuster marketshare of the same size?

You want a little cheese with that whine of yours? When I bought a 360 at launch, I played more xbox games on it than 360 games. I own a ps3 and I play ps3 games and also a large number of ps2 and even ps1 fare. And yes, I watch dvds and bluray movies, too. Just because the ps3 gets some heavy hitters for this fall, doesn't mean, that I won't be watching bluray movies. Its not hard to imagine why your thread got deleted.

actually Rogers owns Fido so it is one GSM,
there is also Virgin that I am relatively sure it is CDMA.
Also Telus has 2 networks the iDen (Mike that they bought from Clearnet some years back)and the CDMA

I'd take Blockbuster's support over Walmart any day....HD DVD can have 'em. America rents at Blockbuster and all they'll see is BLu Ray.

Agreed, people shop at Walmart cause they're looking for cheap goods, not because they're looking for quality goods. Consumers will start to see HD DVD as a poor man's Blu-ray... which in reality is pretty much the truth.

Ok, thanks! We have it:

Netflix Total Revenue for the year 2006: $996.7 million
(source: http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6409885.html)

Blockbuster Total Revenue for the year 2006: $5.52 billion
(source: http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6419949.html)

Total Rental Market Revenue for the year 2006: $7.5 billions
(according to http://www.dvdinformation.com/News/press/CES010807.htm)

So we get:

13.4% for Netflix
73.6% for Blockbuster

So Blockbuster got 73.6% of the US Rental Marketshare? Is it true?

This is bad news for HD DVD.

UPDATE: the above numbers are wrong. The actual rental revenue for Blockbuster in the US in 2006 is roughly $2.2B (including videogames rental). So the marketshare for BB is less than 29%. Thanks to Numanoid101 for the clarification!
You can found his post here:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...&#post10816327

And how important is HD DVD and BD to Netflix?

They are a pimple on DVD's A$$ . . . . . . . 1% of their business

http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/03/28...ixs-shipments/

What's your point? The two HD formats have got to start somewhere. DVD started off as a zit on VHS's ass and guess what?

Does not pertain . . . .

DVD over VHS was a revolutionary change.

HDD over DVD is an evolutionary change

Big difference!

Wireless: 2 companies: Bell (Telus rents cell lines from Bell) and Rogers (Fido owned by Rogers)

TV: Look have long been bought by Rogers.

If those figures are correct this is worse news for HD DVD than I thought.

And how do BD/HD DVD sales compare with DVD in it's first year? Me thinks BD/HD DVD have done better. Have any evidence to the contrary?

Man, Bill Hunt is going to have an orgasm typing an editorial that will be up on his website anytime now declaring the high-def war for Blu-ray... again! What a lousy way to start the weekend for HD-DVD supporters!

I don't know about the rest of the populous. Although I have both formats I tend to buy HD DVD titles more than BD. On the other hand, I tend to rent BD movies than HD DVD. For me it's because HD DVD have more titles I want to watch over and over again whereas BD has lots of big titles that I'd like to watch but not over and over.

You can compare DVD to HDD all you want but it is you who are smoking that peace pipe. Apples to oranges

Ask ANYONE what they paid for their first DVD player and then ask them what they paid for their first HDD player.

And keep in mind that DVD was a purchase only format for almost 2 years while HDD became a rental and a purchase format almost overnight. Choice brings more people into a marketplace.

Not so shiny news, particularly on Dad's day, innit?

Cheer up daddy'o !! As they say, you make your own destiny. HD-DVD made its own in the way it ran its campaign. Pick up a PS3, order some movies on Netflix, and chillax !!

Life is too short to worry on things you can't control.