Europe's online source of news, data & analysis for professionals involved in packaged media and new delivery technologies
Features
DVD and Beyond 2010 magazine
Welcome to the 12th edition of our annual publication, the companion to www.dvd-intelligence.com, our industry website. Like in previous years, we examine the state of packaged media and we track developments in the range of alternative digital delivery technologies that may - or may not - impact on the sector. Read More...
An industry executive speaks
In a series of Q&As, professionals in all facets of the packaged media industry share their views of things past, present and yet to come. It’s the turn of JOHN FITZGERALD, CEO of EDC-Entertainment Distribution Company, based in Hannover, Germany. Read More...
The changing role of TV displays
It is not so long ago that the main TV set in a European household sat in the corner of the living room with the sole purpose of receiving programmes from a relatively limited number of channels, delivered over the air or from a local cable operator. How things have changed, pounders JIM BOTTOMS, Managing Director of Corporate Development at Futuresource Consulting. Read More...
On predicting the future
Predicting the future, let alone the future of packaged media, is a perilous exercise, and possibly counter-productive, says JEAN-LUC RENAUD, as the exercise closes doors rather than keep them open. Consider that: Apple was left nearly for dead 15 years ago. Today, it became the world's largest technology company, topping Microsoft. Read More...
Filling the spending gap
Consumers are spending less on transactional in-home entertainment, particularly on packaged media, than they were five years ago, but growing demand for VOD and digital delivery is beginning to offset – if not compensate for – the decline, says MARIJA JAROSLAVSKAYA, analyst at Screen Digest. Read More...
An industry practitioner speaks
In a series of Q&As, professionals in all facets of the packaged media industry share their views of things past, present and yet to come. It’s the turn of STEFAN BOCK, CEO of msm-studios, a premium service provider for mastering, post-production and media creation, based in München, Germany. Read More...
An industry practitioner speaks
In a series of Q&As, professionals in all facets of the packaged media industry share their views of things past, present and yet to come. It’s the turn of MATHEW GILLIAT-SMITH, CEO of Fortium Technologies, a leading provider of copy protection and fingerprint identification software for the film, entertainment and broadcast industries based in the UK. Read More...
An industry practitioner speaks
In a series of Q&As, professionals in all facets of the packaged media industry share their views of things past, present and yet to come. It’s the turn of ANDRZEJ MACKIEWICZ, CEO of disc manufacturer TAKT S.J. in Bolesław, Poland. Read More...
An industry practitioner speaks
In a series of Q&As, professionals in all facets of the packaged media industry share their views of things past, present and yet to come. It’s the turn of IAN BRENCHLEY, Managing Director of authoring and post-production studio Metropolis in London. Read More...
An industry practitioner speaks
In a series of Q&As, professionals in all facets of the packaged media industry share their views of things past, present and yet to come. It’s the turn of JAKOB SKARIN, Founder & CEO of packaging design company Jakebox AB in Sweden. Read More...
Rising to the green challenge - a thinner disc
Technological advances, ecological awakening, retailers’ green policy and government regulations coalesce to making carbon footprint-busting discs an ever more attractive proposition. WILHELM F MITTRICH, CEO of EcoDisc Technology, explains the concept and identifies the market opportunities. Read More...
Striving in the corporate market
From VHS, CD, DVD and Blu-ray authoring, replication and duplication to encoding for digital cinema, VOD, Internet and mobile, not forgetting archiving, SYMON ROUE, Chairman of re:fine, explains why the one-stop shop approach he has taken was a successful strategy to strive in the corporate market. Read More...
Holography - Quo Vadis?
Has anything happened in the past three years that might bring holographic discs closer to reality? MEGUMI KOMIYA, Feature Editor at DVD-Intelligence, takes stock of the latest developments, pinpointing promising advances. Read More...
From vinyl to VOD - how to strive in a changing marketplace
French independent family-owned replicator MPO has been a key player in the development of virtually all home entertainment media. Looking to the future, LOIC DE POIX, the company Chairman, tells JEAN-LUC RENAUD why the industry should focus all its energy promoting the optical disc format itself, not just Blu-ray. Read More...
DVD users and the rise of online video services
The ways in which people can watch video have exploded in the last couple of years as video streaming and download websites and services have proliferated. DAVID MERCER, from Strategy Analytics, looks at what DVD users are doing Read More...
On predicting the future
Predicting the future, let alone the future of packaged media, is a perilous exercise, and possibly counter-productive, as the exercise closes doors rather than keep them open, argues JEAN-LUC RENAUD, DVD Intelligence publisher. Consider that: Apple was left nearly for dead 15 years ago. Today, it became the world's most valuable technology company, topping Microsoft.
Le cinéma est une invention sans avenir (the cinema is an invention without any future) famously claimed the Lumière Brothers some 120 years ago. Well. The cinématographe grew into a big business, even bigger in times of economic crisis when people have little money to spend on any other business.
The advent of radio, then television, was to kill the cinema. With a plethora of digital TV channels, a huge DVD market, a wealth of online delivery options, a massive counterfeit underworld and illegal downloading on a large scale, cinema box office last year broke records!
The telephone was said to have no future when it came about. Today, 5 billion handsets are in use worldwide. People prioritize mobile phones over drinking water in many Third World countries.
No-one predicted the arrival of the iPod only one year before it broke loose in an unsuspecting market. Even fewer predicted it was going to revolutionise the economics of music distribution. Likewise, no-one saw the iPhone coming and even fewer forecast the birth of the developers' industry it ignited. And it changed the concept of mobile phone.
Make no mistake, the iPad will have a profound impact on the publishing world. It will bring new players, and smaller, perhaps more creative content creators.
And who predicted the revival of vinyl?
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