HD DVD Makes American Pitch to European Consumers
With claims that Toshiba's HD-E1 HD DVD player was the first on the market for the European consumer just last November (claims that a BetaNews reader tonight pointed out was wrong; see update below), and Sony's European edition of the PlayStation 3 with built-in Blu-ray player only emerging from its long launch delay a week from tomorrow, the Toshiba-backed format is already well ahead in the European market. Taiwanese industry analysts (on behalf of parts suppliers for high-def players) estimate HD DVD has already captured an 85% market share in Europe in just the first four months.
Now HD DVD supporters are working to cement the format's presence in the European mindset. Today, those supporters announced the formation of that continent's edition of the HD DVD Promotional Group, to be led by Toshiba, Microsoft, Universal, and French movie producer Studio Canal.
But the new group's European Web site, touting "the look and sound of perfect," doesn't look all that European, especially with only English and German language editions available thus far. A widescreen video opens with nighttime helicopter shots of the skyline not over London or Berlin but Manhattan; and the voice of that great American announcer Don LaFontaine brings the viewer into the realm of great movie trailers with his trademark opening tag line, "In a world..."
From there, LaFontaine promises an action-filled experience in "a world that's kung-ier, fu-ier, and a world that you control. Just push a button to switch camera angles, or push a button to go behind the scenes. Everything so interactive, so...per-r-rfect." (He gets paid well for this job.)
Elsewhere on the site, a video clip shows high-definition players being demonstrated under a "Today Show" banner by another fellow who might not be too familiar to Europeans, Al Roker. And a selection of HD DVD movie trailers leads off with that Mediterranean classic, "Miami Vice."
It's almost as if the studios were using this opportunity to promote America itself to third-world nations.
But the truth is that the European version of the HD DVD promotional site is actually a direct copy of the American version. An "International" version does exist, although it appears more geared toward the Asian market.
If the European Commission still had concerns about the HD DVD and Blu-ray coalitions making too much of an effort to snag consumers in its member countries, some of those concerns might not have been allayed today if the European group had actually produced a Euro-centric edition of its site.
Last July, the EC began an inquiry into whether the cooperation between manufacturers such as Toshiba and Sony, and studios which support their formats such as Universal and 20th Century-Fox, respectively, are intentionally engineering a duopoly through exclusive contracts that would lock out any other potential, high-def competitors. To commissioners, the whole high-def format dispute makes so little sense that it could only be part of someone's plan.
Since that time, European industry analysts have knocked holes in the EC's theory, arguing that the only likely outcome to the format battle is the eventual persistence of a single, hybrid format - one which neither side in the battle actually wants, nor would both sides have willingly colluded with one another to achieve, but which both sides may have to accept. Little has been heard from the EC on this subject since.
With Sony's PS3 having more than leveled the playing field for both formats in North America, and by many estimates having tipped the scales in Blu-ray's favor, it may be way too early for the new European HD DVD group to proclaim victory there - or, more likely, to have Don LaFontaine proclaim it on their behalf.
CORRECTION 9:30 pm March 15, 2007 - Two analysts' reports we'd used for substantiating our statistics for this report said that Toshiba's HD-E1 was the first high-def player available in the European market. While some expected that to become true back in November, one of our readers (see comments below) pointed out that this was erroneous, so we decided to check it out.
And it turns out our reader, Paul Skinner, was right. Samsung's BDP-1000 player, originally slated for European release in mid-September, then mid-October, ended up being released on store shelves on November 7, on the same day the first Blu-ray Disc-based movies were made available - not the first week of December. The HD-E1, meanwhile, was released in Europe on November 15, eight days later. Even then, we learned, the unit was available only in limited numbers, and ended up having its Australian release delayed until January.
So we stand corrected. But that's fine, since one way or the other, we got the facts. Thanks, Paul.