Just when it seemed like no one cared much about AACS, one of the two major security technologies used in Blu-ray discs and systems, Mark Fritz writes on eMediaLive.com that AACS licensing fees remain a problem for 2nd tier distributors.
At the DVD/BD production house Scope Seven, company president Duncan Wain works mostly on projects for the big Hollywood studios, to whom these licensing fees are chicken feed. So he doesn’t worry about these fees personally, but he’s seen the impact the fees have had on smaller independent producers, developers, publishers and distributors.
“If you are going to press a Blu-ray disc, you have to have an AACS key which requires an upfront fee of about $3,000 as sort of a starting fee, and then pay $1,300 per key, plus a per-disc royalty on top of that. So when you add all that up, for a first-time independent producer to put out his first BD title, it cuts really deep into his potential profit,” says Wain. “This is detrimental to a publisher whose margins are thin. They put numbers into spread sheet and look at the bottom line to see if there’s any black ink and depending on how much black ink they see they may change their minds about releasing that title.”
“If you are going to press a Blu-ray disc, you have to have an AACS key which requires an upfront fee of about $3,000 as sort of a starting fee, and then pay $1,300 per key, plus a per-disc royalty on top of that. So when you add all that up, for a first-time independent producer to put out his first BD title, it cuts really deep into his potential profit,” says Wain. “This is detrimental to a publisher whose margins are thin. They put numbers into spread sheet and look at the bottom line to see if there’s any black ink and depending on how much black ink they see they may change their minds about releasing that title.”
In my opinion and in my limited experience, this is VERY MUCH an issue. The only reason my experience is limited is because AACS fees are showstoppers for all of my projects so far! Yes big Hwood authoring houses don't even think twice about AACS fees. However, I'll bet 98% of the authoring houses on the planet are not in Hwood. For most of that 98% of the authoring population the AACS fee is significant. How come the Blu-ray burner manufacturers aren't sticking their noses in this mess? I would think they have to be feeling some pain over slow burner sales?! AACS fees are almost certainly one of the root causes of the slow adoption of Blu-ray authoring!
Jeff Bach
Quietwater Films
Madison, WI.
Posted by: Jeff Bach | Wednesday, December 03, 2008 at 15:44