AfterDawn: News

Target doubles shelf space for Blu-ray titles

Target, the US' second largest retail chain has quietly decided to double its shelf space for Blu-ray disc movies while declining to add space for rival HD DVD titles.

According to Video Business, the change began several weeks ago. The HD DVD sections have remained the same while Blu-ray areas have doubled in size.



Although Target has not chosen a side in the HD format war, it signed an agreement in July with Sony to have its Blu-ray standalone, the BDP-S300, in prominent aisle space for the holiday season.

Blu-ray Disc Association chairman Andy Parsons had this to say although Target had no comment. "You’re going to get a clear message when you see more Blu-ray than HD DVD, and you’re going to think something is up," said Parsons. "The message to the consumer is that one of these [formats] is dominating. You’ll go with the masses and pick titles from the one that is likely to win."

HD DVD supporter Paramount however, played down the whole situation, attributing it to Blu-ray's current lead in sales.

"For a retailer to make a decision on shelving, it’s a very flexible decision," said Alan Bell, CTO at Paramount Pictures. "Retail might be shifting inventory around, but at some point, there could be diminishing returns."

Source:
HD Digest

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 16 Sep 2007 17:42

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• 9 comments

• chaos_zzz

  first post :)
  
  i think blu-ray is going to win i'm not a fan of anyone it's just that with 50gb you have the posibility to expand in the future.
  
  Like Super Hd 4096x2048 My college just bought one of those proyector from Sony they rock the image is so sharp, so blu-ray will be able hold sharper images while hd not, there's going to be a time when 30 it's not enough

  16.9.2007 18:25 #1

• Pop_Smith

  I agree with Alan Bell, if you're the 2nd largest chain in America you probably will promote something selling a little better. Also, your going to be nice to whom ever is paying you, in this case $ony.
  
  If Micro$oft (or some other owner of HD DVD) was paying Target to put a HD DVD player on display as well as double its shelf space, even if it wasn't selling as well as Blu-Ray, which isn't selling hardly at all compared to the current dominate format, Vanilla DVD, I'm sure Target would do the same thing for HD DVD.
  
  Although I still won't take a side (I probably won't ever) it will be interesting to see if a major sales increase happens to either format over the holiday season this year.
  
  Peace

  16.9.2007 18:42 #2

• mspurloc

  Sony's current kickback margin scheme, the same one they tried with Beta, is paying off. Measures like that don't work long-term, though. Make the burners cheaper, split the Sony players into expensive hybrid and cheap Blu Ray-only. Open the standard up to development. Stop using half the disc for overhead and DRM. That's the way to win. This current edge won't even last until Christmas.

  16.9.2007 19:16 #3

• LaBaMaN

  I agree that Target would've acted the same way either with blu-ray or HD-DVD... They are just not market leaders, anything comes in hand

  17.9.2007 09:40 #4

• xtago

  Once you have most of the shelf at shops you start selling more and the other format starts getting cut back then one day it disappears all together.
  
  paramount made a stupid move on their part, now they simply reap what they sow, which is a smaller and smaller market.

  17.9.2007 23:40 #5

• borhan9

  Just rovking the boat back and forth.

  19.9.2007 03:36 #6

• hughjars

  Where's all the outrage at Sony/BDA 'paying off' a few retailers to do this?
  
  After all the whining rumours about Viacom/paramount one might have thought a concrete example of someone being 'paid off' like this might have provoked a reaction from those who claimed only a short while ago to be so concerned about such things.
  
  LMAO.
  
  ......and the Sony S300?
  Hilarious.
  It's obsolescent (only 'profile 1.0') & under-spec right now (& obsolete in a few months?) and can't even play BD -R & BD -RE discs
  (so no burning BD movies and hoping to use it like a super-capacity DVD player).
  
  Target aren't the only retailer & there is going to be a lot happening between now & X-mas in various big stores.
  This is not going to be simply 'one-way' advertising.
  
  .....and don't forget we've yet to hear what Walmart are doing (there are several new rumours of inexpensive HD DVD players coming in under their brand by X-mas).
  
  The biggest fundamental problem the 'bought-off' stores have is in trying to move people away from the HD DVD entry-level price-point of $149 (when the Venturer appears in stores) all the way up to the Blu-ray entry-level price-point of $400/$450 for either a game console or a limited & low spec S300.
  (which would get you an excellent high-end Toshiba HD AX2).
  
  Then they either have to lie or cover up the fact that HD DVD offers more available content and more exclusive content and a larger potential catalogue of movies.
  
  .....and btw chaos_zzz if sheer capacity really is the big deal to you then you might care to know that HD DVD will be offering 51gb discs shortly.

  19.9.2007 03:58 #7

• xtago

  Originally posted by hughjars:
  ......and the Sony S300?
  Hilarious.
  It's obsolescent (only 'profile 1.0') & under-spec right now (& obsolete in a few months?) and can't even play BD -R & BD -RE discs
  (so no burning BD movies and hoping to use it like a super-capacity DVD player).
  
  Target aren't the only retailer & there is going to be a lot happening between now & X-mas in various big stores.
  This is not going to be simply 'one-way' advertising.
  
  .....and don't forget we've yet to hear what Walmart are doing (there are several new rumours of inexpensive HD DVD players coming in under their brand by X-mas).
  
  The biggest fundamental problem the 'bought-off' stores have is in trying to move people away from the HD DVD entry-level price-point of $149 (when the Venturer appears in stores) all the way up to the Blu-ray entry-level price-point of $400/$450 for either a game console or a limited & low spec S300.
  (which would get you an excellent high-end Toshiba HD AX2).
  
  Then they either have to lie or cover up the fact that HD DVD offers more available content and more exclusive content and a larger potential catalogue of movies.
  
  .....and btw chaos_zzz if sheer capacity really is the big deal to you then you might care to know that HD DVD will be offering 51gb discs shortly.Um, have a DVD player here from 1993 that still plays brand new DVDs, Yes I know your probably shocked at that news but hey it works what did ya think would happen? at the end of the day, does anyone really care much as long as it simply plays the disks.
  
  Target in Australia don't sell any HD-DVDs at all only Blu-Rays.
  
  Walmart have said they aren't stocking the cheap HD-DVD player at all.
  
  Blu-Ray has about 180 titles out right now, going up to 200+ by the end of the year.
  
  HD-DVD has around 150 titles out right now and few coming out before the end of the year.
  
  51gig Hd-DVD disks don't work on the current players and it's not even made yet or even ok'ed by the DVD group, talk about jumping the gun big time.
  
  It's like Ford talking about having a flying car... yet its not made, they havn't planned to make anything for it and Ford havn't even said yes to going ahead with making one.
  
  That's how bad that 51gig HD-DVD disk news is.

  21.9.2007 23:22 #8

• hughjars

  Originally posted by xtago: Um, have a DVD player here from 1993 that still plays brand new DVDs, Yes I know your probably shocked at that news but hey it works what did ya think would happen? at the end of the day, does anyone really care much as long as it simply plays the disks. - Plenty of people 'care' that the advanced features that they were promised in the advertising is non-existent with Blu-ray.
  
  That's what you get when you're trying to sell an unfinished spec like Blu-ray's.
  
  .......and as we saw from the Denon article
  http://www.listenup.com/content/partner_...adge.aug.07.php
  if or when the movie business shifts across to 'profile 1.1' or 'profile 2.0' BD discs there's no guarantee that they will work properly with the current 'profile 1.0' players.
  
  Originally posted by xtago: Target in Australia don't sell any HD-DVDs at all only Blu-Rays. - So what?
  
  I dare you to post the high def (Blu-ray & HD DVD) sales numbers in Australia.
  
  This is an absurd argument - particularly in a territory that has only just seen both formats launch this year.
  
  Originally posted by xtago: Walmart have said they aren't stocking the cheap HD-DVD player at all. - Prove it
  (cos I know people that were at CEDIA a few weeks back telling a very different story about what Walmart are about to do).
  
  What you have seen is merely a report mentioning claims that they will not be stocking a particular brand, that's a very different thing to claiming "they aren't stocking the cheap HD DVD player at all".
  
  We'll see who was right in a month or 2.
  
  Originally posted by xtago: Blu-Ray has about 180 titles out right now, going up to 200+ by the end of the year
  
  HD-DVD has around 150 titles out right now and few coming out before the end of the year.. - You are simply wrong about this.....as has been repeatedly pointed out to you.
  You know the facts so why do you keep lying about this?
  
  HD DVD has over 100 new titles coming before the end of 2007, actually.
  
  (bear in mind these numbers apply in the USA & they have yet to remove the Viacom/Paramount numbers)
  
  http://www.blu-raystats.com/index.php
  
  http://www.hddvdstats.com/index.php
  
  Total available content -
  
  Blu-ray 317
  
  HD DVD 308
  
  Total available exclusive content -
  
  Blu-ray 191
  
  HD DVD 181
  
  Remove from the Blu-ray total the number of supposedly 'exclusive Blu-ray titles'
  (which are nothing of the sort and which can be sourced on HD DVD internationally cos HD DVD is region-free every-time)
  
  See here - http://areahd.dvdtiefpreise.com/?p=109
  
  and here - http://forums.highdefdig...d.php?p=45960#post45960
  
  (Over 60 titles, but call it 60 for ease of calculation)
  
  This leaves us with -
  
  Blu-ray genuinely exclusive titles = 131
  
  HD DVD genuinely exclusive titles = 181.
  
  (I have heard of 1 HD DVD exclusive available in Japan on Blu-ray - but it could have been photo-shopped, nothing like 60+ tho)
  
  HD DVD has more exclusive content, by far
  
  Then add those same 60 titles to the total number of titles available to HD DVD and
  remove the 30 Paramount movies Blu-ray no longer has and the 3 Dreamworks titles
  and we are left with -
  
  Blu-ray available content = 284
  
  HD DVD available content = 368.
  
  HD DVD has more available content, by far
  
  Originally posted by xtago: 51gig Hd-DVD disks don't work on the current players - Here's another exaggerated lie.
  
  But ok, go ahead, prove it.
  
  You keep making these claims with no proof of what they will do at all.
  Try sticking to the facts.
  
  There is an element of doubt about the very first gen 1 players - not the gen 2 & 3 players, actually .
  But after CEDIA we now have several people (who were there) saying that they have been told that this either will not be an issue for those gen 1 player or else, if it proves necessary, Toshiba will operate a voucher scheme to upgrade people
  (which given the relatively small numbers the gen 1 players sold in is hardly going to be such a big deal)
  
  Originally posted by xtago: and it's not even made yet or even ok'ed by the DVD group, talk about jumping the gun big time. - Actually it has been made (several tens of thousands of discs in testing according to CEDIA reports).
  
  It has been submitted to the DVD Forum (which does not happen if it's not ready to be produced).
  
  The DVD Forum have already approved the interim spec.
  
  Wait a month is all we were asked......this is another one where we'll all see soon enough.
  I'd be very careful if I were you about making these kinds of sweeping statements that you can't possibly know the facts about one way or another.
  
  Originally posted by xtago: It's like Ford talking about having a flying car... yet its not made, they havn't planned to make anything for it and Ford havn't even said yes to going ahead with making one. - Don't be absurd.
  Your 'analogy' is ridiculous.
  
  This is more accurate considering what has happened.....
  
  It would be like Ford making a converter to give everyone with a particular type of Ford a flying car.
  It would be like Ford testing this device for several months (since they started making the car in fact - seeing as TL discs have been part of the HD DVD plan since day 1).
  It would be like Ford making several thousand working examples to test the idea.
  It would be like Ford now just awaiting the final review and approval with an interim (working) stage already given the go-ahead.
  
  If you're going to try and devise an analogy at least try something that sticks close to what is actually happening, eh?
  
  Originally posted by xtago: That's how bad that 51gig HD-DVD disk news is. - No.
  It's an indication how desperate your reflex opposition to HD DVD has become.
  Fact-free rambling half-truth, inappropriate ridiculous analogies and general guesswork & inaccuracies - some of which are outright lies, cos you have been show the facts several times yet you continue to choose to post information contrary to the facts.

  22.9.2007 05:04 #9