In Danny Kaye's eyes the 'perfect storm' of 2011 is over for Blu-ray and physical media, with the market levelling out he believes the future is bright for the format
According to Twentieth Century Fox Executive Vice President of Global Research & Technology Danny Kaye, Blu-ray and other physical media has a long way to go before it's written off by the likes of Netflix and LOVEFiLM Instant.
Despite the growth of these services Kaye is confident that physical media is still one of the best routes to go for arguing that the fluid nature of the internet means governance over content is much lower.
“We can govern the quality of Blu-ray, we can govern the quality of DVD for example, but even Netflix or say LOVEFiLM for example, can't govern the quality of their service delivery because it then depends on someone else [Internet Service Provider]”
Talking about the dip in physical media Kaye points out that there were a culmination of factors to blame, most prominent of which included the boom of streaming services.
“It was the perfect storm you know right? When the recession started perhaps it hit harder and earlier in the US and then started spreading elsewhere.”
“It was the same time that you had a number of alternative channels of distribution begin to evolve and the consumer said, 'Wow that's pretty convenient, they're cheaper, in some cases they're really convenient and that's the way I'm going to go.'”
Despite these more 'convenient' alternatives Kaye believes strongly that any such dip in physical media was a natural reaction and has since ended, he further backs this up with the news that for Fox physical media is still growing.
“Obviously it's popular to talk about the 'decline of physical media' but even with the last four years of recession which have put a dent in the purchase model where maybe units did decline on DVD faster than perhaps Blu-ray could have compensated for,”
“[However] particularly in the US starting mid year 2011 the market began to stabilise and what you're now beginning to see in the start of 2012 is growth in the physical market”
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