Home Media Magazine has an excellent article just published about the BDA's two day "Blu-ray Festival" going on in Hollywood as I write this.
So many great quotes in this article, I think it would be best to quote the article directly, letting the participants speak for themselves. The most startling statement, oddly, came from Dan Silverberg, VP of HD media for Warner Home Video:
That may not be for long, Silverberg said [referring to Warner supporting both formats]. “One thing that may be changing is our strategy,” he said. “When both formats launched and hardware prices were high, we made a decision to support both formats and let the consumer decide. But now that hardware pricing is affordable for both Blu-ray and HD DVD, it appears consumers no longer want to decide — so the notion of staying in two formats for the duration is something we are re-evaluating now that we are in the fourth quarter.”
Silverberg noted that Warner has the top-selling Blu-ray title of all time with 300 and is consistently No. 1 or No. 2 in both Blu-ray sales market share and in number of Blu-ray titles in the market.
“We can definitely talk Blu-ray,” he said. “We are committed to the format.”
That should definitely put a wrench in the HD DVD camp's claims that Warner will be going HD DVD exclusive in the near future. If anything, it certainly sounds like the opposite may well be the case.
And, of course, what would a BDA junket be without poking a little fun at Paramount's misfortunes:
There also were indications that the Blu-ray camp is done playing nice. At the entrance to the opening breakfast, at the Hollywood and Highland complex, was a huge blowup of a Deadline Hollywood article by renegade online columnist Nikki Finke. The article raised questions about Paramount Home Entertainment’s claim that it sold 190,000 copies of Transformers on HD DVD in a single week.
Later in the day, on the 20th Century Fox lot, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment president Mike Dunn blasted Paramount for its defection, accusing the studio of “taking the bait,” referring to a reported $50 million payout to drop its support of Blu-ray Disc and release titles exclusively in HD DVD.
But lets not forget who the real enemy is here:
Dunn also intimated that the format war is being perpetuated by Microsoft in the hopes of confusing consumers so much they don’t support either format and ultimately buy their entertainment online. He didn’t name the computer giant by name, but blasted “the orchestrated campaigns of confusion and anti-consumerism fueled by an 800-pound gorilla that would prefer to force us all into the practice of paying tolls for the right to exchange information and enjoy entertainment.”
I guess I really don't have much to say. The participant's said everything about as well as it can be said. IT's starting to look like a very Blu holiday season.
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