Indie Studio Lions Gate Becomes Latest Blu-ray Endorser
In vowing Wed. to back Blu-ray with a slate of titles when hardware is available in 2006, Lions Gate made good on a pledge in its Aug. 10 first-quarter conference call to endorse one next-generation format over the other “perhaps within a week.”
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In that conference call, Lions Gate executives proclaimed their studio “the only true independent left” in Hollywood. The Blu-ray announcement Wed. said Lions Gate controls an arsenal of titles comprising “one of the largest home video libraries in the world.”
Although the Sony Pictures endorsement of Blu-ray was a given in the roster of studios that have announced they're backing Blu-ray, the support thrown Blu-ray’s way by Disney and Fox were genuine coups, as both those studios were lobbied heavily by the HD DVD camp. Lions Gate, too, is a genuine coup for Blu-ray, but the studio is believed to control a relatively small share of the DVD market, so its Blu-ray support probably lacks the higher stature of the earlier Disney and Fox endorsements. However, the Lions Gate backing extends Blu-ray’s unbroken string of studio endorsements, giving that format additional bragging rights over HD DVD, which hasn’t landed a studio endorsement since the trio of majors -- Paramount, Universal and Warner -- signed on just after 2004’s Thanksgiving holiday.
Like other studios endorsing Blu-ray or HD DVD, Lions Gate said its commitment isn’t exclusive to Blu-ray. Lions Gate Pres. Steve Beeks said it was Blu-ray’s storage capacity, its level of content protection and its “demonstrated manufacturability and acceptable cost proposition that made the format “the perfect choice for Lions Gate at this time.” The announcement said Lions Gate also was “enticed” by the new PS3’s expected impact as a platform for playback of Blu-ray and DVD movies.
Lions Gate executives said as much in their conference call with analysts a week earlier. CEO Jon Feltheimer said then his studio was “looking forward to the resolution of the high-definition format war, and we're close to making a decision on which format to support.” Pressed by one analyst questioner on whether Fox’s recent Blu-ray endorsement would “force” Lions Gate into the Blu-ray camp, Feltheimer wouldn’t say which way the studio was leaning. Nothing “forces us to make a decision, but I would say we have a strong feeling we will perhaps within a week announce our decision,” he responded: “As soon as we can get that high-def format situation resolved, I think that can really move forward.”
He seemed to tip a hand toward Blu-ray when he said Lions Gate believes PS3 will be “a significant user” of next-generation optical media, plus DVD and videogames. Moreover, he reminded analysts, Lions Gate was a strong believer early on in PSP’s Universal Media Disc (UMD), and was the first content company not affiliated with Sony to provide movies for the PSP (CED March 8 p8). All told, Lions Gate released 6 movies on UMD in June, plans to release 6 in Sept. (including the hit Crash, which becomes available on DVD Sept. 6) and plans 50-60 more in calendar 2006, he said.
Asked if Lions Gate is exploring other alternative forms of content delivery, Feltheimer said “we're having significant conversations with everyone from hard drive manufacturers to users of video-on-demand” to telcos, he said. “There’s going to be significant incremental revenue generated from new buyers of content. I don’t think that’s far into the future. I think that’s now. As a matter of fact, we're having a lot of offers for VoD content, and we're trying to make sure what our channel strategy is right now before we make short-term decisions. But I think there are significant opportunities right now for new ancillary markets.”