Blu-ray Alliance to Modify Licensing for Supporting BD media

Some data released made the BD Alliance shocked and could question the real future of BD. According to a survey 82% of movies available on a BD disc were not sold. Of course, this is not a disaster as such disc might be sold later on, cheaper, or will be used to populate shelves with movies in BD format in shops. But for sure, the BD group would have preferred to see the BD format finally massively adopted by consumers.
Panasonic, Phillips and Sony, creators of the new format, decided to modify the licensing agreement and associated fee on media in order to boost BD usage and mass adoption. They have created a single license allowing manufacturers to produce BD media, players and burners at a much lower cost. Prices will now be as follow: 9.5 USD for a BD player, 14 USD for a burner, 0.11 USD for a pre-recorded media, 0.12 USD for a blank media and 0.14 USD for a rewritable media. If those figures remain rather high, it will simplify the licensing scheme for many manufacturers and we could finally see more competition and lower prices for blue laser-based products.