Sony: Blu-ray Battle Has Just Begun

Blu-ray Triumphed Over HD-DVD but Must Now Conquer Standard DVDs

By Glen Dickson -- Broadcasting & Cable, 3/5/2008 12:15:00 PM

Blu-ray, the HD optical-disc format created by Sony, definitively triumphed over the competing HD-DVD format after Toshiba’s decision last month to stop making HD-DVD players. But that doesn’t mean the HD-disc war is over, according to Sony Electronics president and chief operating officer Stan Glasgow.

The real challenge, Glasgow said, will be convincing consumers that the improved resolution of Blu-ray video over standard DVDs -- 1080-line progressive (1080p) versus 480-line progressive (480p) -- is worth investing hundreds of dollars on a new Blu-ray player and buying significantly more expensive Blu-ray movie titles.

“The battle really begins now,” said Glasgow, who held a press briefing Wednesday morning at the Sony Building in midtown Manhattan. “We’ve got to convince people of the value of high-definition.”

Glasgow conceded that upscaling technology used to make standard DVDs look better on HDTV sets has significantly improved, which makes selling Blu-ray a tougher proposition for Sony and other Blu-ray backers, including Panasonic and Pioneer.

But he added that Blu-ray’s resolution still represents a “significant difference” for consumers with 1080p displays. Sony is also adding features such as Internet connectivity to its Blu-ray decks, which Glasgow expects to drop in price to the “$300 range” this year.

Sony’s job may get easier as more consumers buy 1080p displays, with Blu-ray currently the only source of available 1080p content -- broadcast and cable networks broadcast HD in either 720-line-progressive (720p) or 1080-line interlace (1080i).

On that note, Glasgow said roughly one-half of the HDTV displays Sony sold last year were 1080p, compared with lower-cost 720p models. That doubled the share from 2006, when only about 25% of the HDTV sets Sony sold were higher-resolution 1080p displays.

Overall, Sony had “one of the strongest holiday seasons in history,” and it is continuing to record strong sales of its consumer-electronic products, Glasgow said, despite declarations from legendary investor Warren Buffett and others that the U.S. economy is currently in a recession. However, Sony is trying to stay nimble from a manufacturing point of view.

“Supply-chain work is critical, to be able to sense demand in the marketplace and adjust production accordingly,” Glasgow added.