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 The High Definition DVD Studio Support Petition Campaign |
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Welcome to the world of High Definition DVD! December 17th 2007 Warner says "NO Switch to Bluray!" - So Which Studios are REALLY switching? We've seen the Bluray supporters talking it up all over the web in the last couple of weeks. "Warner switching to Bluray!" the rumour-mongers yelled. Even the head of Lionsgate got caught up in the folly, proclaiming to Business Week that he heard a "rumour" that Warner would be going Bluray-exclusive. Nay! Warner was forced (once again) to make a public statement that the Business Week article (and the studio boss' statement) was false. Warner is not moving to Bluray exclusive. They even issued the statement worldwide! So what IS actually important to Warner? Well according to the same Business Week article: "Warner isn't talking, but people close to the situation say the studio is waiting to see which group sells more of the new-fangled DVD players this holiday season. "Warner wants one of the two sides to make a commitment to getting this format into as many hands as possible," says a studio executive with knowledge of its thinking. So far Toshiba has eked out a lead." Whereupon the writer grudgingly acknowledges that there are 878,000 dedicated HD DVD players out there, compared to just 370,000 dedicated Bluray players. So why the rumour-mongering by the Bluray side? Frankly, I opine that it is a desperation effort by Sony and the Bluray side. I feel sorry for the Lionsgate fella, in a way, because I suspect that he was probably told flat-out by someone in the BDA that Warner was looking to switch, and simply got caught for repeating the rumour. One wonders if GCI, or another of the Sony PR companies, was as busy circulating this "news" as they were the Nikki Finke story about Paramount supposedly getting Microsoft money to support HD DVD - a tidbit which was later said to be false. So WHY would the BDA want to convince Lionsgate that Warner might switch to Bluray? In MY view, there can only be one reason: To try to scare Lionsgate and stop them from switching to a format-neutral position. I have heard some rumblings in the last few weeks that certain BD-exclusive studios, are considering dropping their BD-exclusive positions and supporting BOTH formats equally. Some people in the BDA might consider this a disaster, because it would then mean that buyers of either format could get pretty much all the movies available on their chosen format, and would leave the rest of the format choice down to the STRENGTHS and VALUE of the respective players. So by spreading rumours in "the biz" that Warner might switch, they could make these BD studios believe that the format war is nearly over, and that going "neutral" would be futile. The longer that the BDA can prevent them from supporting HD DVD, the better. But seriously, it's been 2 years of these "mind games" already! And here we are with nearly 1 million dedicated HD DVD players in the market, and we are still up to this trickery? Isn't it about time that these studios start releasing to BOTH formats so that the HDM segment can finally take off without consumers being worried about which choice is "correct"? Many people feel that HDM overall will benefit greatly from the BD studios just supporting both format equally, as consumer confidence in the formats would soar. Meanwhile, in the "back at ya, baby" category, we have heard some very interesting feedback of our own in the last week or two... While we can hardly claim to be "in the biz" or greatly connected to Hollywood, we do end up getting quite a bit of interesting feedback regarding the "format war". Some of it is not very useful, and some of it can be very interesting. This latest information definitely falls into the latter category - VERY interesting. The one caveat about this information, which I must stress, is that the sources are not validated - I don't know them personally, nor have any information about how credible they are. In fact, in one case, the information was sent anonymously from a fake email account to "protect" the identity of the sender. According to these three sources, there are two Bluray-exclusive studios that are in the process of moving to support HD DVD releases. I won't name the studios until I have better coroboration of the claims of the sources involved, but let's just say these are "big fish" and that it's safe to say that Fox is not one of them. One of them is geared up to make their announcement sometime before the end of January. Another is supposed to start shipping HD DVDs before the end of January. I really wish I could give you more info at this time, but it just wouldn't be prudent. However, as soon as more concrete information becomes available you can be certain that I would love to be the first to tell you. There's no question that the "format war" is officially a "stalemate" at this time. Both formats' movies have been selling at very close to the same rates in the last few weeks, with Bluray just holding onto the lead, but it's averaged about 60:40 for the last 2 or 3 months, with some weeks as close as 51:49. This week is predicted to be another close week, with the report due on Friday, December 21st. Even the head of Sony, Howard Stringer, has admitted that it is a "stalemate". Studios must now recognize that HD DVD is NOT going away. The most logical way forward today is for the studios to support both formats equally and let the consumer decide on their favourite. So far, they have tried to force the consumer's decisions, yet consumers have still been choosing HD DVD. By supporting both formats, the studios will let consumers know that it is safe for them to pick whichever format they please and still know that they will be able to happily buy HDM releases. This will eliminate the concerns which are preventing so many buyers from adopting either HDM format, and allow the market to grow quickly and strongly. I look forward to confirmation of these rumours that the BD studios are finally starting to come around. |
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