Daniel Frankel and Ben Fritz of Variety:
...Paramount and DreamWorks Animation announced [Monday] that their future releases will be exclusively in HD DVD.
Move is the third by Par in the ongoing format war. In 2004, studio announced that it would release its movies in HD DVD. A year later, with HD DVD seemingly waning, it decided to release in Blu-ray as well.
DreamWorks Animation, for its part, hasn't released any movies in HD DVD, and company topper Jeffrey Katzenberg has been dismissive of the concept. "Blu-Ray and HD DVD are a niche business," he said in March on a conference call with Wall Street analysts. "They're not going to become the next platform. I think for the general consumer, there is not a big enough delta between the standard DVD in terms of where it is today and the next generation."
That's a far cry from the statement he put out on Monday: "We believe the combination of this year's low-priced HD DVD players and the commitment to release a significant number of hit titles in the fall makes HD DVD the best way to view movies at home."
Announcement is a tide-turner for the HD DVD camp, which had seen its titles outsold by Blu-ray in the U.S. and Europe by a ratio of about two to one.
But HD DVD backers say the two-to-one ratio shows that Blu-ray's huge advantage in players isn't translating into disc sales. Warren Lieberfarb, who consults for HD DVD backer Toshiba, noted that there are more than 1.5 million Blu-ray players in the U.S. -- most of them PlayStation 3s -- and fewer than 200,000 HD DVD players. "That ratio should be something like 8 to 1," he argued.
Blu-ray supporters, which include Sony, MGM, Disney, Fox and Lionsgate, along with dual-format backer Warner Bros., had touted the availability of more movies as the format's key selling point. Defection of Par weakens that argument.
U homevid topper Craig Kornblau -- who heads the HD DVD Promotions Group -- took the opportunity Monday to echo a refrain often heard from his rivals in recent months. "There are more of the top movies available on HD DVD than on Blu-ray now," he said.
Some were speculating that Universal, which was previously the only HD DVD-only distrib, would soon begin a dual-format approach, thus tipping the battle decidedly in Blu-ray's favor.
But the HD DVD format's backers, led by Toshiba, apparently reached a deal with Par, which distributes DreamWorks Animation films on homevideo, to switch back to their side. Just as with the Blu-ray-only studios, Par and DWA almost certainly will be receiving multimillion-dollar financial commitments to support one format over the other.
Some of the financial details may later be disclosed by DreamWorks Animation, which is a public company.
Given the strong sales advantage Blu-ray has enjoyed in the marketplace, most industryites said only a behind-the-scenes deal could have motivated the switch.
"Nothing seems to support this," said consumer electronics analyst Richard Doherty. "It seems to fly in the face of normal retail and consumer forces."
Par will make the switch starting with the Aug. 28 homevid bow of "Blades of Glory," followed by the "Transformers" release later this year. DreamWorks Animation, which has yet to release a title in either flavor, will tout the HD DVD debut of "Shrek the Third" in the fourth quarter. All three releases will be distributed by Paramount Home Entertainment and will be released day-and-date with their standard-def DVD counterparts.
All Par and DreamWorks pics will be released in the format in the future, with the notable exception of those directed by Steven Spielberg...
Complete details can be found here
I'm still waiting for the dual player to make it's mainstream move in the marketplace--This news just confirms that my decision to do so--is the correct one.
Exclusives are fine for some I suppose, but not the consumer who is being shut out. With no clear winner declared in the war, 2 years in, I prefer having the freedom to buy any disc I want...
Update: Weighing in on the Paramount HD-DVD exclusive arrangement..."Transformers" director Michael Bay is not happy-- saying on his site;
"For them to deny people who have Blu-ray sucks! They were progressive by having two formats....."
I agree. The studio is gonna regret this decision...
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