The other day we posted news about some possible
upcoming HD-DVD releases (
Band of Brothers and
Friends), and now we have the announcement of the first TV series to come on Blu-ray...
The selection of the show makes a lot of sense. It's owned by Sony (well, owned by MGM, which is owned by Sony); it's shot in HD; it's popular with sci-fi fans (and sci-fi fans are more likely to be part of the early adopters rushing out to buy the newest technology). This is the first TV show to be announced for Blu-ray, but it may not be the first to be released; who knows what's in store for the new format.
You can read the full list of Blu-ray titles in the Video Business article which was the source of this information. We held off a bit on posting this info, hoping to get further info or a quote from Sony, but our requests for that were not immediately responded to (no surprise; these are busy people trying to organize this launch).
Other interesting items of note in the VB story include estimates from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment prez Ben Feingold that the initial Blu-ray titles will ship about 50,000 - 100,000 units of each, which is interesting when you compare (as VB did) to the roughly 60,000 units-per-title launch of UMD's first film titles for the Sony PSP game system). It's also interesting to note the different strategies that different studios have for launching titles in the new high-def formats: Fox aims to have a small handful of titles out in the week or two prior to the first hardware launches, yet Paramount (which supports both Blu-ray and HD-DVD) intends to hold off on both release dates and pricing until after the hardware hits and they see what initial support is like from both retailers and consumers. Lionsgate wants to get titles out right around the time of the player launch, but they are keenly aware that the purchase of their discs requires the end-user to own or buy both the new hi-def player plus an HDTV that will show off the great high-definition graphics.
