Netflix recently announced that they will be charging more for Blu-Ray rentals- presumably because they are paying more for BR titles. As BR becomes a much more saturated part of the marketplace, due to PS3s and lower-cost BR players that are expected for Christmas, BR sales are expected to zoom, seeing growth much above the 300% reported in the last year.

But for small distributors and independent filmmakers, BR feels still far off. Licensing and royalties involved in the patented manufacturing process make a BR disc at least double the cost of a standard DVD- and if you will only be selling 5-30K copies, the return can’t really justify the expense, especially since the major studios have set the BR price point pretty low.

Nevertheless, indies are going to have to make the leap in the next year- there is simply too much at stake to hold back, and most probably learned their lesson from the last time, when companies who waited around on DVD lost significant revenues. For now, we can look to Sony Pictures Classics as the example, since they (presumably by virtue of their relationship with Sony, a major stakeholder in Blu-Ray technology) are one of the only “arthouse” distributors with a significant number of BR releases. (I hope to talk with someone there about their strategy in the upcoming weeks).

And greater demand will no doubt lead to greater competition and better pricing, though with a new technology it is always good to be careful of going too budget. For small projects you can now find Blu-Ray burnable discs for around $15 or less and a burner is about $400. If you have any hot BR tips, share them in the comments.

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