Will Adding Facebook Drum Up More Interest In Warner's BD Live?
This story was written by Tameka Kee.
It's been a while since we've heard any definitive news about BD Live, the platform that lets studios embed interactive features like games and IM chats into their Blu-ray moviesbut at least one studio has figured out that BD Live needs to tap in to preexisting social networks for it to gain traction with more than a handful of users: Warner Bros. The company's Warner Home Video division will be linking all new BD Live-enabled releases to Facebook, letting viewers access their friends lists, games and other applications while they're watching a film.
Kris Brown, Warner's VP of worldwide high-definition tells Video Business that Facebook "adds credibility" to Warner's BD Live offering because it expands the available pool of people a movie viewer can interact with, beyond the studio's own relatively small BD Live community. (There aren't any hard stats on the overall number of active BD Live users, but a look at some individual communities, like the relatively new CBS BD-Live site, for example, show participation in the hundredsnot thousands.)
This walled garden approachwhere each studio sets up its own BD Live community and contentis part of the problem; Warner seems to understand that the walls need to be lowered a bit to foster more widespread adoption. Whether rival studios like *Sony* and *Disney* will jump on the bandwagon and partner up with Facebook or another network remains to be seen.
Photo Credit: /pitzyper!
By Tameka Kee