Blu-ray's Key to OTT Growth
Colin Dixon, Senior Partner, Advisory
October 30 , 2009
One of the big conclusions of TDG’s upcoming report on the CE devices delivering Internet video to TV is the importance of Blu-ray Players. Until now one of the biggest barriers to people buying the player was price. They typically sold for $250 or more. I predicted that by Black Friday stores would be offering the players at sub-$100 prices. My good friend Will Richmond pointed out to me today that you don’t have to wait for Black Friday.
Best Buy is offering an Insignia Blu-ray Player with the Netflix streaming client built in for just $99. That’s the same price as the standard Roku HD stb and $200 cheaper than a PS3 with Blu-ray.
At this price, when your regular DVD player breaks why wouldn’t you just replace it with a Blu-ray Player? Not only does it play your regular DVDs but it up-converts them to HD and delivers the video through an HDMI connector. You are also ready for Blu-ray disks for true HD delivery. Also, when you hook it up to your home network you can enjoy Netflix streamed movies directly to your TV.
One feature to keep your eye on is support for Internet services like Netflix streaming. Buying a device that supports this feature could be a wise investment. The Insignia Player can be upgraded with new client software over the Internet so they could launch new services that work with the Player in the future. You may find you actually use the player watching Internet delivered more than you use it for watching disks!
It’s going to be a Blu-ray Christmas, folks. The only question is how low in price will the manufacturers go!
To pre-order the new report, Broadband-Enabled TV: Evolution of the OTT Hardware Platforms, please contact us at 469-287-8050.
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