Accoding to an article on Yahoo.news, the life expectancy of the UMD format films for the PSP maybe suddenly become very short indeed.

“Disappointing sales have slowed the flow of movies on the proprietary Universal Media Disc to a mere trickle. At least two major studios have completely stopped releasing movies on UMD, while others are either toying with the idea or drastically cutting back.”

Universal Studios Home Entertainment has completely stopped producing UMD movies, according to executives who asked not to be identified by name. Said one high-ranking exec: “It’s awful. Sales are near zilch. It’s another Sony bomb — like Blu-ray.”

Of course, watching movies on the PSP is one of those ‘great idea in principle, not so good in reality’ moments. Its not that watching movies on the PSP doesn’t work, its that its hard to justify the expense of duplicating films you own on DVD in the UMD format. Especially when its easy enough to rip the DVD to MPEG-4 and play it back on your Memory Stick Duo.

A high-ranking executive (from Paramount Pictures Home Entertainment) “We are on hiatus with UMD,” he said. “Releasing titles on UMD is the exception rather
than the rule. No one’s even breaking even on them.”

It would seem that sales have been so slow of the UMD format that the major film publishers are either cutting back production or stopping completely. Perhaps it would be wiser to reduce production to only those films that suit the UMD format, or offer pre-DVD release versions to entice consumers to part with their money.

The thing I find strangest about these comments from the publishers is that the cost of production for the UMD format is not going to put a dent in the budget of any Hollywood blockbuster. By the time the publisher comes to release a film on DVD, converting it to a PSP friendly UMD format will surely have minimal costs associated with it. The publisher doesn’t even need to market the UMD format, thats covered by the DVD marketing budget.

Perhaps the real cost of the UMD format is the shelf space it takes up, space that could be usd to sell other products, such as DVD’s.

But next week, Sony Computer Entertainment executives will begin making the rounds of the Hollywood studios to discuss plans for making the PSP able to connect to TV sets.

“We’re hoping the format’s going to be reinvigorated with next-generation capability that may include living-room or normal television playback,” he said.

This last quote seems to offer some hope that the UMD format may survive, if Sony can convince the publishers that the market is there for the UMD format then they may continue to offer it some form of support.