M+E Daily
With Blu-ray households up, Warner readies weighty ‘Harry Potter’ boxed set
Story Highlights
by Terence Keegan
More than one quarter of U.S. households now own a Blu-ray player, according to a report by Centris Research (via Home Media Magazine). Yet with Centris reporting that household Blu-ray player adoption increased 47 percent from one year ago, many Blu-ray households likely have purchased PlayStation 3 consoles or other latest-generation, Internet-connectable player models.
The rising tide in Blu-ray player adoption does not necessarily lift all studio ships. The onus remains on studio marketers to communicate the continuing relevancy of higher-profit packaged media products to consumers, lest households simply use their Blu-ray players as gateways to Internet video-on-demand services like Netflix and Vudu.
Will consumers perceive UltraViolet access to content as enough of a value add to keep collecting packaged media, at least when it comes to blockbuster franchises?
Warner Home Video is hoping so, as it prominently features UltraViolet in a new marketing campaign for its weighty, 31-disc boxed set of “Harry Potter” films.
Warner’s “Harry Potter Wizard’s Collection” features all eight of the series’ feature films in Blu-ray, DVD, and UV-powered Digital Copy form. The 19-pound, $500 set, due in September, also includes all of Warner’s previously released “Harry Potter” extras, plus hours’ worth of new and exclusive bonus materials.
However, digital access to the bonus footage is not part of the set’s UltraViolet offer — and the digital copies of the films are in standard definition, according to Warner’s Harry Potter site.
