VSDA2


	VSDA Report - Thursday


	Welcome to the second day of the VSDA conference and I start to wonder how people actually survive in the blistering heat of Las Vegas during the summertime. Temperatures exceeding 110 degrees make every minute outside a torture at least for us. We’ve been here quite a couple of times - mostly in winter or springtime - and there is not a lot going on in this town during the daytime. With these temperatures during the summer, it doesn’t surprise me any more. At night the town is coming to live however, like no other town I have seen.

Talking about Vegas nightlife, let’s get back to last night’s red hot Universal party for a minute. Starting at 11:00 pm, Universal packed “The Joint” at the Hard Rock Hotel with industry people for some hours of first class entertainment that gave the visitors the chance to also mingle with people like Robert Duvall who came over to the party to promote the video release of his latest movie “The Apostle”. The highlight was without a doubt the appereance of the “Blues Brothers”, playing a spectacular 45 minute set of classic hits from the Blues Brothers movies. The guys, albeit not the original movie cast members, were simply amazing and rocked the house from the minute they entered the stage. The whole party was totally cool with everyone enjoying the atmosphere, the great music and the cold drinks. Here are some impressions for you.


	Of course it was accordingly hard to get up this morning, but the show was waiting. Especially with one of the main attractions this morning being Jet Li’s appearance at Warner Home Video’s booth for an autograph session.

WARNER HOME VIDEO
Here he is, the martial arts star from Hong Kong. Making his debut in Hollywood movies in the upcoming “Lethal Weapon 4” side by side with Mel Gibson, Danny Glover and Joe Pesci, Jet Li is sure to kick some “butts”. It is very hard to imagine that this gentle, nice and always smiling young man is actually one of Hong Kong’s deadliest wepaons... so to say. It was a pleasure meeting him and of course, we have once again gathered an autographed picture for one of our readers.
Everyone was extremely busy at the Warner booth due to Jet Li’s appearance and the unexpectedly long lines of people waiting to see him. We will see if we can find out some immediate DVD related news for you tomorrow, when hopefully things will be slightly slower at Warner’s booth.
During the show, Warner have announced a new price structure for all their titles,



		Jet Li

however, which will take effect in the fourthe quarter. It is a three tier pricing that will consist of asuggested retail price of $24.98 for their top-tier, $19.98 for their “mid-range box office new releases and popular catalog titles” and $14.98 for their “classic titles with significant star power”. Plans are also to reduce the prices on more than 30 of their catalog titles.


	20th CENTURY FOX As expected, Fox did have a press conference on the first day of the show, but unfortunately it had nothing to do with DVD. We have had the pleasure however to talk to Fox’s head of Public Relations today but still they keep their lips tightly shut. As we had pointed out in our editorial before, he confirmed that Fox is indeed hesitant because of the size of the market. There seems to be no other reason holding Fox from releasing titles on DVD than the fact that publishing to a niche market does not produce enough revenue to make it worth their while. So, for now, let’s be patient. We have all hoped Fox would make their commitment public during this show, but I am under the impression we will still have to wait a little more.

IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT
Image have just announced yesterday that they have picked up the publishing rights for the “Redemption” series for VHS, Laserdisc and DVD. You might not have heard of “Redemption” before, but to the horror insider, this is a cult series of bizarre, macabre and depraved movies from Europe. Surely this series of sex-horror films will find its cult following here in the US too, even more when Image releases them in unrated widescreen versions. At this time, Image announced “Cold Eyes Of Fear”, “The Sinful Nuns Of Saint Valentine”, “Devil’s Nighhtmare” and “The Reincarnation Of Isabel”. Image’s Garrett Lee was very excited about the series and we sure think they have a winner on their hand there. Even more impressive will be Image’s “Super Speedway”, a disc Lee is touting as the ultimate DVD demo disc. Whenever you will need a disc to show off DVD’s capabilities, this disc will be the one to blow away your friends. We will keep you posted as soon as we get our hands on a demo copy.

Although Image have lost substantial amounts of their busines when the Laserdisc market broke



	Image Entertainment’s Garrett Lee

away and it is admirable how they restructured their organization to make the progression to the next step in the market. Garrett is doubtful however that the DVD market will become mainstream any time soon, especially with the confusion DIVX is causing, which will become even worse once the national rollout of the hated and incompatible pay-per-view version of DVD starts later this year. Other aspects are also causing those doubts in his mind, but in general he and Image are very happy with the way DVD has turned out for them and he expects the market to grow and florish in the months to come. The meeting really makes me sorry that we could not attend Image’s party on Tuesday night, because we came into town on Wednesday only. I am sure the bash must have had a very relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere with people like Garrett around. We’ll try to make it next year.

PARAMOUNT
Everyone wants to know what’s the deal with Paramount? Where are their discs? Well, after meeting with Paramount’s Dorrit Ragosine today, we know where they are. In production. Paramount are working on a list of titles that will definitely be available for the christmas season. They are hesitant however to announce the titles and even more the release dates because unlike other publishers, Paramount want to make sure they can definitely deliver the goods on the dates set. Having to establish new business with DVD authoring facilities and replicators took its time and at a time when everyone is trying to get their products readied for christmas, it is very easy to get caught in a relentless array of delays. Paramount want to make sure not to disappoint customers by announcing titles they cannot deliver. We should learn more

about their release slate rather soon, I guess, and Dorrit added with a smirk, “People won’t be disappointed” with their title selection. It is a long and tedious process to ready DVDs for the market, as we have already pointed out in our E3 Special, and the way Dorrit described it makes it even more obvious that it simply takes time to get everything done. She did not shed any light on a scheduled release on Titanic however, but pointed out that Paramount are fully aware of the fact that a release of Titanic on DVD would sell a lot of hardware. (Comment from the Editor: But then again, are Paramount in the hardware business?)


	MGM Very pleasantly surprised with DVD’s performance in the market, MGM have decided to increase their title output, especially in 1999. According to MGM’s Dave Miller, they have decided to put a line of their classic movies out on DVD. No details are available yet, but considering MGM’s excellent quality of releases, I think all DVD owners will be in for a treat when the Big Lion rolls out some of its most beloved characters and movies.



		Corey Bridges, Marc Randolph, Te Smith


	NETFLIX We were very interested in meeting the folks from Netflix, the company that opened a completely new market segment for DVD only a few months ago. Within this short period of time, Netflix has become the number one online rental institution for DVD. Having the whole catalog of DVD releases available at literally any time, they have made it easier for people to take a look at discs they are uncertain about, while leaving them the option to simply change their rental into a sale. The system works and Netflix want to thank everyone who has helped making their venture such a success, especially of course, to all their customers. It is really interesting how president Marc Randolph has found this niche in a rapidly growing market and successfully turned it into a profitable company that has customer satisfaction as their ultimate goal.


	DIVX Of course everyone wants to know what DIVX are doing on the show. Well, to put it bluntly, they are not here. DIVX has sent two representatives, Paul Bridze and someone else, who are having private meetings behind closed doors, but that’s about it. No flash, no whiz bang or boom.... and quite frankly it’s not really an issue.


	That’s it for today, folks. We will have more for you tomorrow, so stay tuned and make sure to check back for tomorrow’s VSDA update. I hope you understand that our news here cannot be complete at this point, but we are trying to do our best to update the site as good as we can while we are staying here in Vegas.... which proved pretty tricky all by itself.

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