Filed under: Feature | Tags: Blu-Ray, HD DVD, PS3, Sony, Time Warner, Toshiba, Warner Bros., XBox
CES Buzz: Warner Bros.’ Blu-Ray Announcement Bitch Slaps the HD DVD Format
So far, the predominant rumblings at CES haven’t been devoted to any new gadget on the floor. Instead, the constant noise thus far has been committed to the Friday Warner Bros. announcement that the studio would release its titles exclusively in Blu-Ray beginning in June. Warner Bros., Hollywood’s biggest seller of DVDs, represents about 18 to 20 percent of sales in the U.S. and up to this point has toed the line by releasing titles in concurrent formats. At this point, most of the studios now support Blu-Ray leaving Paramount Pictures, Dreamworks, and Universal Pictures in support of HD DVD. Out of the three remaining HD DVD supporters, Universal is not under contract and therefore can change to Blu-Ray at any time it wishes. Backing Blu-ray Disc on the manufacturer end has been Sony, Panasonic and Samsung, while HD DVD’s main supporters have been Toshiba, Microsoft and Intel. Toshiba responded to this news saying that it was “quite surprised” by the announcement from Warner “despite the fact that there are various contracts in place between our companies concerning the support of HD DVD.” This announcement shakes up the ongoing format war leaving many to believe that Blu Ray has bitched slapped HD DVD for the last time.
Click the image below for the full Warner Bros. press release.
Consumers have been waiting out these format wars leading to slowness in the market place on both HD DVD and Blu-Ray sales fronts. This being the predominant reason referenced by Barry Meyer, Chairman & CEO, Warner Bros. and Kevin Tsujihara, President, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group when making this shift in strategic vision. “A two-format landscape has led to consumer confusion and indifference toward high definition, which has kept the technology from reaching mass adoption and becoming the important revenue stream that it can be for the industry,” said Kevin Tsujihara, president of Warner’s home entertainment group in a statement. A clear indication of Blu-Ray supremacy could lead to increased sales; higher sales would help electronics manufacturers increase production spelling decreased unit prices for consumers.
Happiness all around. In essence, the format war only seems to hurt the consumer who is generally confused at every turn. First confusion: buying an HD television. Second confusion: what type of DVD player to buy? I would be more than overjoyed by a nail in the HD DVD coffin and think this most recent announcement sends a clear message.
The tide seemed to turn for Blu-Ray after Sony embedded a Blu-Ray player in the Sony PS3 console. Even though sales of the PS3 were not to expectations, the PS3 has excelled as a distribution platform for Blu-Ray. While on the Microsoft end of things, the Xbox console offers a HD DVD player. As I sit in line for Bill Gates’ keynote at CES, there are no clear indicators whether Microsoft will continue to support the HD DVD technology in future iterations of the Xbox. (Note, no announcement regarding HD DVD inclusion in the Xbox was noted in the keynote).
We’ll just have to see how these things play out but on my end, I’ve got 5 on Blu-Ray. The North American HD DVD Promotion Group cancelled its press conference last night at the Consumer Electronics Show after Time Warner announced plans to drop HD DVD in favor of Blu-ray. A coalescing of major studios around one format is hoped to help boost slumping DVD sales. (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aV8RN3ADIua4 1/5)
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