While Business Week certainly should get a lot of credit for being the first major publication to publish the recent rumors that Warner Brothers is preparing to go Blu-ray exclusive, and effectively end the format war, the result has been a groundswell of articles from major publications and bloggers alike regarding the still-rumored switch.
Pali Research had a somewhat pro/con opinion of the whole thing, essentially stating that Warner will go Blu-ray exclusive, but that Hollywood will still suffer from the format war that shoudn't have been:
"Rich [Greenfield of Pali Research] predicts that the costly format war between Sony and Toshiba/Microsoft will end in 2008, when Time Warner's movie studios stop supporting the HD-DVD format, forcing NBC's and Viacom's studios to fall in line. But Hollywood was counting on this format war getting resolved years ago so it could replace slowing conventional DVD sales."
The New York Times commented on the rumors and provides a bit more insight into what Warner's thinking could be:
"But the most important factor in WB’s decision will be which format will offer the greatest number of potential buyers of its home video library? The answer there could be Blu-ray, by dint of its backing by Disney, which targets families - who are most likely to purchase older titles. And if WB does follow Disney’s lead, Dreamworks’ and Paramount’s deals with Toshiba last only 18 months, suggesting that they’re almost as much on the fence as WB."
Even Rob Enderle (longtime HD DVD fanatic and oft-accused Microsoft shill) has come around to the conclusion that Warner's decision may be inevitable, although he's now following along with Microsoft's next plan of attack, digital downloads:
"Right now, Blu-Ray has the advantage coming into the 4th quarter, and related Blu-Ray disc sales also reflect this strong advantage... Warner Bros.’ 300, a banner title that released on both formats, sold significantly more on Blu-Ray than on HD DVD, lending credence to the former medium’s leading status... By currently playing both sides of the battle, Time Warner is getting iterative sales that studios devoted exclusively to one side or the other are not getting. Nonetheless, given that the time’s about right for the market to explode, Time Warner is likely feeling pressure to become a kingmaker."
And, as always, PentonMan (a Hollywood insider who posts over on Blu-ray.com) chimed in to stoke the flames:
"I just don’t have the time to voice my displeasure about Mr. Vaughn, as paidgeek and I are super busy making sure all the fan-belts are in tip-top shape on the BD50 replication machines so that when WB comes onboard Blu exclusively, we don’t have a doomsday scenario presenting itself. Alan Bell is supervising our fan-belt inspections."
Though PentonMan's message is a bit cryptic (as are many of his most important statements), he isn't one to to lie, and is far more connected to the situation at hand than anyone else who has commented on the rumors. The implication certainly seems to be that an announcement will be forthcoming in the not too distant future.
As for Warner Brothers, they've been oddly quiet in the U.S., though Roger Clarke, Managing Director of their Australian subsidiary had this to say:
"Our position hasn’t changed and certainly any comments that were published in the US were not intended to suggest that we had changed our stance. We support both formats and we have not made any decision towards that policy and nor are any such announcements planned or in the pipeline."
Take that for what it's worth. Given that Warner's foreign subsidiaries have essentially no say in the matter and are often rather out of touch with the goings-on back in the U.S., it's possible Clarke doesn't know what's going on. It also has the ring of a non-denial denial, so who really knows what to make of the statement. Personally, I think we'll all know for sure very soon.
0 comments:
Post a Comment