Warner Bros. has no plans to drop HD neutrality

[vick86]

Ach in deze spannende tijden zien beide kanten dingen er niet zijn of staan. Voorlopig is WB gewoon nog neutraal en volgend jaar zien we wel weer verder.

[rvvnr1]

Wie gelooft al die PR onzin nou. WB gaat als een verantwoord bedrijf gewoon begin volgend jaar hun positie herbekijken en beslist daarna of men of Blu-ray of HD-dvd wil ondersteunen of voorlopig nog allebei.

T staat er toch aardig concreet:
---
As for speculation that the studio is waiting for Q4 sales results before making an announcement of format exclusivity -- perhaps even as soon as this January's CES in Las Vegas -- Noonan shot down any such short-term scenarios.

"Like any major company, we are always reviewing our strategies in every aspect of our business, it is what smart companies do. I can't say what may happen five, ten years down the line. But right now, Warner Bros. has made no decision to change course. We are still onboard with both formats, and will continue [with a strong line-up of new releases and catalog titles], just as we have in the past in supporting HD DVD and Blu-ray."
---

[AntS]

Warner Bros's president Kevin Tsujihara said that fears of a deteriorating U.S. economy and falling DVD industry sales helped drive the company's decision to back Blu-ray exclusively.

"We've typically been recession proof," Warner Bros Entertainment Group President Kevin Tsujihara said in an interview at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Reuters reports.

"But the thing that we saw in the fourth quarter...was gas prices beginning to affect sales. And since we're considered an impulse purchase, it's beginning to impact us," he said.

Tsujihara said the company needed to quickly erase consumer and retailer confusion over dueling DVD formats before economic conditions deteriorated.

Warner executives also said the consortium of companies backing Blu-ray, including five of the seven big Hollywood Studios, could spend more than $50 million in 2008 to convince consumers to upgrade, or more than the amount spent by the backers of both HD DVD and Blu-ray in the 2007 holiday season.

A 2007 decline in DVD sales, which account for half of Hollywood's profits, and anticipated further declines in 2008 sped Warner's decision making process.

Warner also said that worsening economical conditions in 2008 could scupper sales of new players, and movies, even if only one format survived.

"We've hit the first 30 million" households with high definition televisions, Tsujihara said. "As we go in deeper, they'll be more cost conscious."

At CES, Warner Home Video's president Ron Sanders was also asked whether Sony had paid Warner to exclusively support the Blu-ray.

Sanders chuckled and said, "I wish."

"Any payment would just be a drop compared to getting it wrong in the consumer marketplace," Sanders said.

Sander's also told BetaNews web site that Warner had fulfilled any contractual obligations to Toshiba, answering to a question regarding a possible legal reaction of Toshiba against Warner's decision. "That's why we will continue to provide movies in the HD DVD format through May rather than stopping now," he said.

[AntS]

Wed Feb 20, 2008 at 03:30 PM ET

You may have a hard time finding an HD DVD player to play them on, but Warner says it will continue to issue HD DVD discs through the end of May.
Though the studio declined comment on Toshiba's announcement that it would abandon the HD DVD format, a Warner rep tells us that the studio intends to continue releasing titles on both Blu-ray and HD DVD through the end of May.
The studio even went so far as to announce a new dual-format release Tuesday -- the direct-to-video title 'Sublime,' which it said would hit HD DVD on May 13, three weeks after its planned Blu-ray bow on April 22.

At press time, the majority of remaining titles on the HD DVD release schedule were split between Warner and Paramount/DreamWorks. Notably, Universal (which announced its own intention to back Blu-ray Tuesday morning) has only one announced forthcoming HD DVD release -- 'Fletch,' which as of this writing is still scheduled to hit stores March 13.