An industry executive speaks

In a series of Q&As, frontline practitioners in all facets of the packaged media and digital delivery industry share their views of things past, present and yet to come. It's the turn of ZOLTAN TUSSAI, Managing Director of Optical Disc Solutions, in Bucarest, Romania.

Where do you see your company's comparative advantage/uniqueness in this crowded market?

Our strategic location. Optical Disc Solutions SRL is one of the most important Eastern European player. We are CDSA and MPAA-certified. Maintaining a high quality of services, proper customer management, solution focused are out key strength. Also, we enjoy flexibility and diversification in connected areas like fulfillment and packaging, content management, distribution. etc;

Amongst the range of services you offers, which one did grow in importance over the past 2 years and which one diminished?

Fulfillment and packaging activities increased significantly while replication slightly decreased.

Diversification is supposed to be the best way of staying afloat in the face of market uncertainty. How do you see your company's range of services evolving over the next 2 to 5 years?

We foresee that replication will further decrease. Packaging activities will increase and we are in the process of developing a connected activity which is warehousing and logistic services for our clients.

One keeps hearing alarmist opinion about the rapid demise of packaged media in the face of online delivery. What is your view as to how long discs will be around? And what could become its main target market?

We think packaged media will diminish in the coming 5 years, especially because of the online piracy, if no important enforcement measures are taken. This could go down the same way as the vinyl.

The ever lower margins on Blu-ray discs makes the economics of BD authoring and replication very challenging. What needs to happen, what features need to be added, to make it a viable business for independents?

I consider Blu-ray will not become attractive for medium-size replicators.

Given the apparently slower than expected take-up of 3D, do you thing 3D is here to stay or consumer interest in stereoscopy is temporary?

I think the stereoscopic interest is only temporary and that 3D will remain a niche market.

Do you see the arrival of 3D as the shot of adrenaline the Blu-ray disc format badly needed to progress in the market, or do you think consumers will eventually make a success of Blu-ray irrespective of whether 3D develops?

3D may influence the consolidation of the format, but it seems that it will not be the only trigger for the future of BD.

Do you think the consumer take-up of 3D depends on the arrival of glasses-free autostereoscopic systems. If yes, how many years do you believe consumers will have to wait for a high-quality glasses-free system to rival the existing shutter glasses 3D systems?

Yes, 3D depends significantly on the arrival of glasses-free autostereoscopic systems.

Cloud-based UltraViolet digital copy is making inroads. Do you see it as potentially increasing the sales of BD discs (as the studios intended) or be the death knell of packaged media?

It can potentially increase the sales of Blu-ray discs, but it is difficult to predict.

What do you see as the opportunities, but also the pitfalls associated with Digital Copy on a disc?

Increase of the sales may be an opportunity, but this will assist the further spead of piracy, especially if this trend will be allowed in Eastern Europe.

How much of a revolution Smart TV represents, given that consumers are already comfortable using other screens (laptops, tablets, smartphones) to access Internet-delivered content?

It seems this is the best solution for Internet-delivered content in this part of Europe, however it opens up new dimensions and comfort zone for local ?pirate content consumers generation?

4,000-line Super HDTV is pointing on the horizon. Do you anticipate this to be the next TV format? If so, could it lead to the arrival of a next-generation larger-capacity Blu-ray disc to deliver this content, given that broadband could be inadequate?

At first glance it seems an extreme technology which will only be reserved for a small niche of customer who might notice the differentiation with HD.

How to you see Hollywood squaring the circle between the inexorable fall of high-revenue producing packaged media and the unstoppable rise of low-revenue generating online digital delivery?

Online delivery is a process that will generate low quality productions.

If you let your imagination run wild, what system, format, application aimed at delivering content to the home would you like to see implemented in 10 years time?

Holographic interactivity with less and less physical remote control or touch screen maybe?!

A last word?

In Eastern Europe, online piracy is the main cause of the continuing fall in revenues in the media sector. Packaged media is directly affected by this. The lack of even the most basic legal actions for years against online piracy has shaped the current status where especially young generations don?t even think of spending any money for their source of entertainment, meaning, CDs, DVDs or legal downloads.

This local 'trend' also heavily affects the level of Western European revenues. How? The large majority of the locally-established pirate sites full with the latest blockbusters and valuable catalogues are also accessible in Western Europe?

Several million of Eastern European people are working in Western Europe. Their habits regarding download has not change with their West-bound migration - maybe slightly - but local rumors confirm that actually they manage to teach their 'practices' to the native population! The results are easy to predict.

As a solution to fighting this type of piracy, we propose that the main actors in our industry set up a pan-European collaboration with a view to developing a common set of measures destined to restrict the actions of those pirate websites.

Contact: www.ods-bs.ro/en.
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