Disney is Bullish on BD-Live

Art Hair, Disney Studios CTO, is speaking now at C-Scape. Disney has released a Blu-ray version of Sleeping Beauty that includes the interactive features of BD-Live. There's actually a good video demonstration of the functionality on YouTube. Disney has launched the BD-Live Network that offers chat, gaming, and other interactive features.

Our Digital Media Evolution study, the results of which will be available soon, reveals that consumers are more likely to view such BD-Live features as access to expanded VoD content and trailers are more valuable than other features like chatting or attending virtual watching parties. I talked to Art about this yesterday at lunch, and he acknowledged that for "old people" like he and I, these may not make much sense. However, when you make Hannah Montana a virtual experience (Art mentioned virtual pajama parties), one can only imagine how the younger generation may respond to a feature like this.

Cisco Pushing Resources on the Consumer Market

Cisco's CEO John Chambers made some interesting comments in his remarks to the C-Scape event yesterday. He talked about building operational excellence and efficiencies internally, using tools such as WebEx, TelePresence, and a Facebook-like application where Cisco employees can connect to company experts, read materials, and connect to teams for collaboration.

One interesting comment that Chambers made was the company's push to the consumer market. He talked about freeing up resources that can then be used by groups at Cisco focusing on service providers, media companies, and consumer electronics manufacturers. I would expect that we'll see much more from Cisco at CES in January that lays out these specific strategies.