Warner Bros. goes Blu

I have been following the successor to DVD, high-definition media for a year and a half now. There are 2 high-def formats, HD-DVD and Blu-ray battling it out to succeed DVD.

Both of these formats have only attracted the early adopters and some say have hindered it’s acceptance by the mainstream consumer who are aware of its existence. They are waiting for a clear winner to show it self before buying in. It has also affected the DVD market as well. Consumers have been slowing their consumption of DVD movies in hopes of buying it in high definition format. But unable to do so until a clear winner emerged.

The battle between the 2 formats has received a potential knockout. Warner Bros. who has initially supported both formats has dropped support for HD-DVD and is favouring Blu-ray elusively.

This announcement comes a few days before the start of a very important trade show, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). CES is used a marketing and promotional event by all the major electronic manufactures to announce and show products for the upcoming year. This is a blow to the HD-DVD group, as they have now cancelled their Sunday press event at CES.

Warner is the largest movie studio in Hollywood, joining the Blu-ray camp now means that 70% of content is now potentially available elusively to Blu-ray. The remaining 30% is available through Universal and Paramount / DreamWorks who are both currently HD-DVD elusive.

But with the change by Warner Bros. the momentum has changed drastically in Blu-Ray’s favour. With only 2 out of 8 studios supporting HD-DVD and one major manufacturing (Toshiba) making HD-DVD players. It looks like a death blow to the HD-DVD format.

One of the reasons Warner Bros gave for distributing elusively is stated by Kevin Tsujihara, President, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group.

“A two-format landscape has led to consumer confusion and indifference toward high definition, which has kept the technology from reaching mass adoption and becoming the important revenue stream that it can be for the industry”

In other words it was a business decision for Warner Bros. They need to start increasing their global revenue in packaged media. The DVD market is slowing down and they need a new revenue stream. If high-def media does not take off it means a further decline in revenue until another format or way of watching movies (downloads ??) takes off.

I hope over the course of the year the 2 remaining HD-DVD studios at least release on both formats or switch to Blu-ray. Hopefully by November/December of this year the crucial buying season for the holidays, Blu-ray will be considered the winner in the high-def wars and be the only choice consumers choose even if HD-DVD is still around then.

HD-DVDs days are numbered, it just a matter of time.