Studios jump off UMD bandwagon

Max · Post by **Max** » 2006-02-17 11:13am

Studios slow UMD movie production
Poor sales force movie production houses to cut back on PSP-formatted flicks; noncomedy genres are first to get canned.
When Sony released the PlayStation Portable last year, many industry watchers felt as though the movie-watching capabilities were limited by the handheld's proprietary format. The Universal Media Disc, many argued, would go the way of the Betamax and the Minidisc, formats both made by Sony that were eventually edged out of the market because of competition and their limited usage.

Would people pay money to buy movies that could only be viewed on the four-inch screen of the PSP? Out of the gate, the answer was surprisingly "yes." Seeing the format as a viable option for more revenue, many film studios, some reluctantly, jumped on the bandwagon and announced support for the format.

Now, it appears that many are hopping off as quickly as they got on. Paramount Home Entertainment, Warner Home Video, and yes, even Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, are cutting back on UMD releases because of poor sales, reports Variety.

Warner has cut six titles from its previously announced lineup, including Martin Scorsese's classic Goodfellas. Sony, realizing that comedy UMDs sell much better than action or horror UMDs, will be adding Not Another Teen Movie and Monty Python content to its lineup. Sony will also begin releasing movie bundles, selling a movie on DVD and UMD in one pack for just under $30.

An abundance of formats and piracy (DVDs can be ripped to larger memory sticks) are cited as likely causes for the falling demand, which right now nets about 40,000 to 50,000 units sold for the average release, according to Variety.

To hype demand for UMDs, Sony is said to be pushing an adapter that would let PSPs play UMDs on televisions.

By Tim Surette -- GameSpot

The Grim Squeaker · Post by **The Grim Squeaker** » 2006-02-17 11:19am

Another interesting article on this from Ars technica:

As UMD movies fail to impress, studios slow down releases

2/16/2006 5:16:11 PM, by Ken "Caesar" Fisher

When Sony announced that it would begin selling bundles of UMD movies, the situation behind-the-scenes became somewhat clear. It had been suspected for quite some time that Sony's aspirations for charging portly prices for diminutive discs would amount to yet another flash in Sony's pan, despite some initial successes. When they announced their new bundling plans, Sony was essentially signaling that their previous approach was in trouble. Now we know for certain.

According to Variety Magazine, Studios aren't seeing the interest that they had hoped for, and now Paramount, Warner Home Entertainment, and even Sony itself are cutting back on releases. With the average release selling only 50,000 units, sales are beyond sluggish.

"We are re-evaluating our position on any future releases at this time," said Jeff Baker, Warner senior VP and general manager of theatrical catalog. "We're looking at this on a case-by-case basis. We're disappointed with consumer demand at this time."

What's the big plan to turn it all around? Sony is now putting its hopes on a PSP-to-TV hookup product that will be sold as a PSP accessory. That's right, the company hopes to spur interest by turning the PSP into a DVD player, except without the quality of DVD, and without the added features that DVD can offer.

"It would be a huge boost to (PSP movies) if we can arrange for the disc to play on TV players," according to Benjamin Feingold of Sony Pictures.

Huge boost? I doubt it. Want a huge boost? Try pricing your miniature toy movies about 50 percent lower, and see what happens. I can honestly say that a movie kiosk at the airport selling UMD titles for, say, $10 or so, would have tempted me into a purchase three or four times. But as it stands, I have yet to buy more than one UMD movie, and that purchase was for research purposes. Let's face it: when (or if) you think about buying movies, you think about buying DVDs. UMD is a niche format, Sony.

Nevertheless, Sony is going to be pitching the idea to studios over the coming months. Just how well it will work is anyone's guess, but Sony et al should see the writing on the wall: the only titles that are selling well are those that appeal to the young male market. Driving Miss Daisy won't become a hit on UMD merely because you can now play it on your TV. Again, this is a niche product.

There's also market limitations inherent in any UMD solution. Sony has only shipped about 6 million PSPs, a far cry from the ubiquitous DVD player with which it competes. What was I saying about niche?

For Sony there is a very fundamental question to be answered: does the company want UMDs to spur PSP sales, or do they want PSP sales to spur UMD uptake? It's a question that Sony currently appears to have no answer for. UMDs are priced prohibitively high, and won't bring new PSP sales by themselves. At the same time, PSP users already have to decide between buying DVDs, UMDs, or *shock* games for the PSP. Sony will complicate matters when they offer online movie sales for the PSP later this year (the movies will be stored on the more efficient, if expensive Memory Stick).
The cure to what ails Sony

All of this harping on niche hasn't been to annoy you. No, I intended to setup a larger point I wanted to make. For the following questions, there is but one answer:

* Why is UMD doomed to niche status?
* Why is the PSP doomed to a niche status as a movie player?

The answer: the death of fair use for movies. UMD is a optical disc format that should not exist. Why? Because it shouldn't be needed. DVD already gives us what we need (for now): the video data, and the physical medium to get it into your hands. UMD does the exact same thing, but in a slightly different physical format. It's pointless, unnecessary, and most importantly, compelling only because the fair use of DVDs is not legal in many countries.

The simple truth is that most people don't want to pay for something twice. If Sony could advertise that it was possible to take any one of your DVDs and play it back on the PSP—nay, that you could create a library of your DVDs for PSP playback—Sony would have an embarrassment of riches. The company even has the media manager ready to go. In fact, here's how insane the whole scenario is. Sony, a company that loves to sell proprietary anything, is missing the biggest excuse to sell their proprietary Memory Sticks. They're more flexible than UMD, playback consumes less battery life, and they're nice and quiet. But no. The utter refusal to allow consumers to use their DVDs as they see fit creates an artificial niche market. At every step along the way, there's less and less to be excited about.

Movie playback should be a selling point for the PSP. It would be if it were legal to port DVD movies to the PSP.

But yes, Sony will tell us that without the DMCA, people might pirate movies. Yet they already do. And so what? The law doesn't motivate people, at least not many people. Studies show that it's all about convenience, and the path to stellar PSP sales won't be trod by double-dipping and a format whose only reason for existence is bad law.

Admittedly, the company may see some successes once you can purchase movies online for the device, largely because of that very same convenience issue. But even then, I wager, sales won't be all that impressive. Why? Double-dipping.

Sell the movies, not the formats. If you want to get in on the format game, make it about convenience, not exclusivity.

Sony (and the rest of you movie execs), listen up. A company named Apple has sold millions more iPods than you've sold PSPs. Many of those iPods were sold long before there was an iTunes Music Store. How is this so? Simple: users could exploit their already existing CD collections (although the RIAA is now trying to stop this). Imagine being Apple and trying to sell the iPod if the only thing you could put on it was materials bought from iTunes. Still think those sales numbers would be what they are? Of course not.

It's a good thing the PSP was designed for gaming. At least that way, the failure to ignite the device's media capabilities won't sting so much.

In short, Sony tried to exploit the lack of fair use regarding dvd's by offering the umd, but are trying to offer dvd functionality-
A weak idea due to the fact that a dvd has better res than a umd and special features

Praxis · Post by **Praxis** » 2006-02-17 11:22am

Sony should have used mini-DVD's instead of UMD's. At least they'd be playable on a TV.

Anyway, can't say I have any sympathy for Sony.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2006-02-17 01:41pm

It could have worked if UMDs weren't more expensive than DVDs. Alas, Sony isn't getting the hint.

andrewgpaul · Post by **andrewgpaul** » 2006-02-17 06:37pm

An abundance of formats and piracy (DVDs can be ripped to larger memory sticks) are cited as likely causes for the falling demand, which right now nets about 40,000 to 50,000 units sold for the average release, according to Variety.

Except that's not actually piracy, is it? having a pirated DVD is piracy, but copying a legally-purchased DVD onto a memory stick isn't illegal. Unless there's a clause in a license agreement somewhere which prohibits it.

Praxis · Post by **Praxis** » 2006-02-17 08:25pm

andrewgpaul wrote:
An abundance of formats and piracy (DVDs can be ripped to larger memory sticks) are cited as likely causes for the falling demand, which right now nets about 40,000 to 50,000 units sold for the average release, according to Variety.
Except that's not actually piracy, is it? having a pirated DVD is piracy, but copying a legally-purchased DVD onto a memory stick isn't illegal. Unless there's a clause in a license agreement somewhere which prohibits it.

Some DVD's are encrypted, so the arguement is that it's illegal to crack the encryption to make your legal backup.

Some DVD's aren't encrypted, and some tools are claiming to be able to rip the DVD without breaking the encryption by recording the video stream, thus, using those tools wouldn't be illegal, but there's a debate about that in court last I heard.

I hope the pirates are happy. Because they insist on pirating, now we've got all this crap security in Blu-ray and HD-DVD that'll downgrade our signals if we're not using protected hardware. Good going, guys

Now those of us with legitamite uses can't back up our videos or put them on portable players.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2006-02-17 08:36pm

Pirates will always exist like murderers will always exist. The fault lies with the companies pushing such bullshit copy protection, not with the fallibility of human nature.

andrewgpaul · Post by **andrewgpaul** » 2006-02-18 07:19am

Praxis wrote:
andrewgpaul wrote:
An abundance of formats and piracy (DVDs can be ripped to larger memory sticks) are cited as likely causes for the falling demand, which right now nets about 40,000 to 50,000 units sold for the average release, according to Variety.
Except that's not actually piracy, is it? having a pirated DVD is piracy, but copying a legally-purchased DVD onto a memory stick isn't illegal. Unless there's a clause in a license agreement somewhere which prohibits it.
Some DVD's are encrypted, so the arguement is that it's illegal to crack the encryption to make your legal backup.

is it, though? I mean, if you get prosecuted for it, you'l lose, because the MPAA can afford better lawyers, but is the cracking of Css illegal of itself? Not trying to deny your point, but I'm just asking?

Praxis · Post by **Praxis** » 2006-02-18 01:40pm

andrewgpaul wrote:
Praxis wrote:
andrewgpaul wrote: Except that's not actually piracy, is it? having a pirated DVD is piracy, but copying a legally-purchased DVD onto a memory stick isn't illegal. Unless there's a clause in a license agreement somewhere which prohibits it.
Some DVD's are encrypted, so the arguement is that it's illegal to crack the encryption to make your legal backup.
is it, though? I mean, if you get prosecuted for it, you'l lose, because the MPAA can afford better lawyers, but is the cracking of Css illegal of itself? Not trying to deny your point, but I'm just asking?

The DCMA has an exception that says you're allowed to make a backup of anything you own, however, it also states that it is illegal to break encryption, so yeah. Something of a contradiction though.

Pirates will always exist like murderers will always exist. The fault lies with the companies pushing such bullshit copy protection, not with the fallibility of human nature.

Yeah, I know, I'm just sick of having to pay and not be able to use legitamite backups and being punished because OTHER people are thieves.

For example, I can't rip NDS games to my M3 adapter so I could have all my DS games on one cartridge, because the DS games are encrypted.

I have to plug a $20 PassKey 2 into the top of my DS (sticking out quite a bit) just because of Nintendo's security to use my M3.

I can't rip DVD's very easily to back up on to my hard drive.

Etc, etc.

Sorry, just venting.

atg · Post by **atg** » 2006-02-20 01:40am

I expect the person responsible for coming up with the plan to charge more for a umd movie than its dvd equivalent is now having a fulfilling career which involves saying 'do you want fries with that?'

Or considering this is sony perhaps not.......

andrewgpaul · Post by **andrewgpaul** » 2006-02-20 12:37pm

Nah, he's probably in charge of copy-protecting audio CDs.