Sony's Universal Media Disc facing last rites

[Izuno]

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Exactly a year after it was launched in the United States, the Sony PlayStation Portable's days as a hand-held movie-viewing device might be numbered.

Disappointing sales have slowed the flow of movies on the proprietary Universal Media Disc to a mere trickle. At least two major studios have completely stopped releasing movies on UMD, while others are either toying with the idea or drastically cutting back.

And retailers also are cutting the amount of shelf space they've been devoting to UMD movies, amid talk that Wal-Mart is about to dump the category entirely.

Wal-Mart representative Jolanda Stewart declined comment on reports that the retailer is getting out of the UMD business. But studio sources say such a move is imminent, and a check Wednesday of a Wal-Mart store in Santa Ana, Calif., revealed a drastic shrinkage of UMD inventory. Several shelves of movies in the PSP section were gone; all that remained were seven UMD titles sitting bookshelf-style on the top of the PSP section, with no prices or other information.

Universal Studios Home Entertainment has completely stopped producing UMD movies, according to executives who asked not to be identified by name. Said one high-ranking exec: "It's awful. Sales are near zilch. It's another Sony bomb -- like Blu-ray."

(Sony, in fact, vowed Wednesday to stick by the announced May 23 street date for the studio's first batch of Blu-ray Disc titles despite reports that the next-generation hardware needed to play the discs likely won't arrive in U.S. stores until the following month at the earliest.)

Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment also is said to be out of the UMD business. "We continue to evaluate the PSP platform for each title, and if it makes sense for business reasons and the target audience, we will release them," spokeswoman Brenda Ciccone said. "Our focus right now is much more aimed at HD (high-definition) at the moment, though."

A high-ranking executive was more blunt: "We are on hiatus with UMD," he said. "Releasing titles on UMD is the exception rather than the rule. No one's even breaking even on them."

Also out of the UMD business is Image Entertainment, while other studios -- including 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment and Buena Vista Home Entertainment -- have drastically slashed release schedules.

"No one's watching movies on PSP," said the president of one of the six major studios' home entertainment divisions. "It's a game player, period."

Observers speculate the studios released too many movies, too fast. Within five months of the PSP's March 2005 launch, 239 movie and TV titles already were either in the market or in the pipeline -- a significantly higher tally than games, according to the DVD Release Report.

But while sales were initially strong -- two Sony Pictures titles even crossed the 100,000-unit threshold after just two months -- the novelty quickly wore off, observers say. The arrival last fall of Apple's video iPod only hastened the PSP's decline as a movie-watching platform.

Benjamin Feingold, president of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, was a big believer in PSP as a movie-watching platform. He still is, even though he concedes retail shelf space for UMD movies is on a sharp decline and his own studio is being "more selective" in choosing movies for UMD release.

Feingold believes the PSP's biggest drawback as a movie-watching device was the inability to connect the gadget to TV sets for big-screen viewing, "which would have made it more compelling," as well as the inclusion of memory stick capability.

"I think a lot of people are ripping content and sticking it onto the device rather than purchasing," he said.

But next week, Sony Computer Entertainment executives will begin making the rounds of the Hollywood studios to discuss plans for making the PSP able to connect to TV sets.

"We're hoping the format's going to be reinvigorated with next-generation capability that may include living-room or normal television playback," he said.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

Anyone surprised? I don't own a PSP, and I didn't buy one because there weren't any games I was interested in and when the thing launched it was too much of a pain to get movies on there without buying them for $20 bucks or more. Today, it's still kind of a pain in the ass...compared to my video ipod. Sure, I gotta convert my DVD's to an ipod format using 3rd party software that cost me $15, but it works like a charm and with 60 gigs I can store a lot of movies and move them on/off from my PC with relative ease.

PSP is just a pain in the ass, plus there's no easy way to watch on screen, but that's not the real problem IMHO.

The real problem is that if I am going to spend $20 on a 2 hour movie, I would really like to watch it on my PSP and on my TV in full res etc. Would a UMD movie if output from a PSP to a TV look as good as a DVD on the same TV running from a DVD player? I don't know someone tell me.

With a video ipod, anything resed down to run on an ipod will look like shit when output to a TV, which is potentially the same problem. but the thing is, if you got it on your ipod, then most likely you ripped your DVD, meaning if you still want to watch on your iPod or your TV you can do it and you only have to buy the DVD (ie content) once. I consider myself a mainstream DVD and iPod consumer, so I am thinking this is about how the "mass" market might behave, hence might explain a slower adoption to the UMD format.

But that's just one part of the puzzle. What do you think?

[ReNo]

I have a PSP (though rarely used ) but have yet to buy a UMD movie for it. As with most people, the big turn off is having to buy a second copy for portable viewing after owning a home copy on DVD. I heard rumours of bundle deals for £5 or so over the retail price for UMD/DVD alone, and that would have been something that would tempt me, but there have been no signs of it actually happening. It doesn't really surprise me that they are gonna disappear at all - selling films on a format that can ONLY be used on one device at prices normally OVER the price of the standard DVDs doesnt make much sense to me. That and I tend to buy DVDs for the sake of collecting rather than frequent watching, so I doubt I'd ever really use UMD movies much.

[Fletch]

Hmmmm, you can spend more for a copy of a movie you already probably own, only this time it's at a lower resolution with no extras and can only be played on one device. Gee, nobody in the industry figured that one out until now?

I'd really like to see a comparison of UMD movie sales vs iTunes movie sales once that feature is unleashed. From the documents leaked at Think Secret, it looks like standard pricing is going to be 9.99-14.99 depending on popularity, with an option to spend more on a HD version that will look better on your monitor or streamed to a TV. I have a feeling it'll kick the UMD's gangly ass back to Japan.

[Section_Ei8ht]

I have a PSP I rarely play. I'm never buying a UMD movie. There's no point in paying 20 bucks for a movie I already own that I can only watch on a screen thats a little bit bigger than my credit card.

[ginsengavenger]

Sony has been trying to strongarm its proprietary media formats into widespread use at least since Betamax... they still haven't managed to do it, have they?

*ed: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony#Proprietary_formats

So they did win out with 3.5" floppies and their joint effort with Philips, the DVD.

[Fletch]

Come on, I totally love my ATRAC3 music files.

[Mazy]

Its still a mystery to me why anybody actually bought any UMD movies.

[ReNo]

Only times I've been mildly tempted are when I see something hugely reduced, like Akira or Ghost in the Shell for £7 or something. Even then though, I've yet to actually buy one.

[Fletch]

Yeah, once the program is discontinued and clearanced, you'll be able to pick 'em all up for 5 bucks, just like MiniDiscs.

[Phatsniper]

I got Spiderman 2 on UMD free when I registered my PSP, and I also bought Sin City (a film I've been dieing to see for ages) with some Christmas gift vouchers.

Still havn't watched either of them, I'll proberly wait till I'm stuck on a train for 5 hours or something.