Personally, I find this rather naive (but what do I know). Has it not occured to the BDA that pricing BR discs at acceptable levels to the market might stimulate rapid growth in a market that could be lost to them if they balls it up? If they follow traditional volume/pricing models they may lose everything.
It`s actually a really odd comment from Parsons actually considering Panasonic`s new players are to carry MSRP's of $399 and $499, cheaper than their models from earlier in the year and cheaper than had been expected for the new machines, and Sony are lowering player prices too. Such hardware will obviously be discounted further by retailers during Thanksgiving/Christmas rush. I can almost hear the rest of the BDA turning to Parsons and telling him to speak for himself since Pioneer are the main manufacturer not showing any real interest in driving their own player prices down.
On the software side Warner have plans to reduce select catalogue prices this winter, and Fox have finally begun announcing titles with $29.99 and $34.99 price tags which, for them, is a step up form their previous “everything is $40” mandate. Discussion of how dire the film was put to one side, the two-disc Blu-ray of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull in the US is actually carries the same price as the two-disc DVD version so I think progress is being made, despite what Parsons says… Baby steps to be sure, but nothing out of line with DVD pricing in its first couple of years.
IF Dark Knight proves to do for Blu-ray what The Matrix did for DVD then adoption of the format this winter ought to rise handsomely. Paramount are doing rebate offers where you can claim $10 back from a purchase if you`ve previously owned the DVD version (Disney occasionally do something similar). Even my Godfather set from them - which is stunning incidentally - has such a rebate offer. Universal are doing some well priced “themed” three packs of titles too which they`re actually dubbing ‘starter packs` too, so there are some early offers in place coming directly from the studios that are trying to encourage adoption.
I have to say that I haven't bought a single Blu-Ray in six months due to catalog and cost, but I bought six more HD DVDs for �2.99 this week. It's not a like-for-like comparison because the HD DVDs are clearance stock, but I'm not paying �18 for Blu.
Where are you buying your discs from? The majority I get end up costing me between �10 and �15 inclusive of the shipping. I divide my purchases between a few retailers - primarily Movietyme and Tower.com. If you`ve not used Tower try them out as they like to try and undercut Amazon where possible. They don`t do discounts on shipping for bulk orders, BUT they clearly seem to have a UK distribution house as all my discs carry pre-paid royal mail post marks and I get my orders within four days after shipping (and that`s with their cheapest shipping option). Consequently there` are no customs worries with them either.
Manufacturers and studios might be more stubborn than we`d like when it comes to lowering prices, but the climate we`re in at the moment is basically encouraging the retailers to step in and do the discounting instead. There`s evidence of this already which is why, as I say, it pays to shop around and check various retailers on occasion and I expect prices and deals to become more appealing as the holiday season approaches.
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