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A top Sony executive is suggesting that the high price of Blu-ray high-def discs is slowing consumer acceptance of the new home video format.

In an interview with Reuters, Stan Glasgow, president of Sony Electronics, said Blu-ray player sales will likely fall short of forecasts this year. While many analysts have said dropping player prices could spark a holiday sales rush, others have said the high price of a Blu-ray movie title will continue to damper consumer enthusiasm.

Many new Blu-ray releases are priced around $10 more than the standard-def DVD edition.

“They (movie studios) need to make money, and the packaged media (discs) is a critical way for them to make money so I understand their problems also,” Glasgow told the wire service. “But I’d love to see those prices come down, as well as the price of Blu-ray players, to drive adoption.”

Glasgow added that Blu-ray manufacturers will fall short of their target of selling five million Blu-ray players across the globe in 2008.
“It’s not that far off of it,” Glasgow said. “Maybe 10 percent off of what we had thought. It’s truly one of the items that has performed well during this economic mess.”

Several retailers are now selling entry-level Blu-ray players for under $200 and some officials are suggesting that the price could drop as low as $128 during the holiday shopping season.

Glasgow also said in the interview that sales of high-def sets are slowing some thanks to the sluggish economy.

“We expected the TV industry to just skyrocket this holiday season. It’s going to grow, but its not skyrocketing,” he said. “There are less consumers…willing to spend money. I believe 80 percent of that is just consumer confidence. They don’t feel as comfortable making a major investment in a television.”

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Source: TV Predictions.Com

Posted by: Geoff Caplan

http://geoffcaplan.com