The winner of the format war is...

[Ruined]

Warner Bros
http://home.businesswire.com/portal/...67&newsLang=en

“‘300’ is an amazing film, and the high definition sales we are seeing underscores the positive business benefits of supporting both HD DVD and Blu-ray,” said Ron Sanders, President of Warner Home Video. “This phenomenal response to ‘300’ is the latest proof that our approach makes the most sense in today’s market and has enabled Warner Home Video to continue to lead the market in high definition sales.”

As a result of its dual format strategy, WHV has more than 30% market share of DVD sales in the high definition market, selling more high definition product and releasing more titles than any other studio. Because of two competing high definition formats in the market, it is widely recognized that hardware prices for both Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD have fallen faster than would normally be expected at this stage in the product cycle. However, research organizations, such as ABI Research(a), predict that further price reductions of hardware are needed to fuel mass adoption of high definition formats.

[ganthc]

But what percentage of that is blu-ray and hd-dvd? Could it possibly be the same 2:1 ratio that we are seeing in sales for everything else? If that's the case, there is no convincing that if one format dies that the 33% on hd-dvd don't switch over to blu-ray and then it's 100% for that format.

Or maybe Universal should look at what Warner is doing and go neutral.

[Derb]

I guess updating the release thread can come in handy,

selling more high definition product and releasing more titles than any other studio.

Total HD DVD released & announced by Studio,

1. Universal Home Entertainment = 126
2. Warner Home Video = 103

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by Derb

I guess updating the release thread can come in handy,



Total HD DVD released & announced by Studio,

1. Universal Home Entertainment = 126
2. Warner Home Video = 103

Add Warner's BDs to that number and they have released more titles than any studio in highdef by far. They didn't claim in any one format.

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by ganthc

But what percentage of that is blu-ray and hd-dvd? Could it possibly be the same 2:1 ratio that we are seeing in sales for everything else? If that's the case, there is no convincing that if one format dies that the 33% on hd-dvd don't switch over to blu-ray and then it's 100% for that format.

But since neither format is dieing anytime soon, this is an irrelevant comment.

Or maybe Universal should look at what Warner is doing and go neutral.

I'd love if all studios to went neutral, including Universal. Let the consumer decide which format wins by its merits. I'm guessing the BD contigent would not like this, however, since that would pretty much take away BD's primary selling point: forcing consumers to buy the less featured, more expensive players by making lucrative backroom deals with studios. Without the exclusive content, BD would just be an overpriced & underfeatured format.

[Derb]

Originally Posted by Ruined

Add Warner's BDs to that number and they have released more titles than any studio in highdef by far. They didn't claim in any one format.

No they didn't. So kinda misleading article.

[ganthc]

Originally Posted by Ruined

But since neither format is dieing anytime soon, this is an irrelevant comment.

As a hypothetical statement of "if" it is relevant. You seem to argue that remaining exclusive is detrimental to studio bottom lines because Warner is doing so well. But "if" one format was to die off, the entire market share would go to the other format and those studios will pick up the sales anyways. How is that not pertinent to remaining exclusive?

I'd love if all studios to went neutral, including Universal. Let the consumer decide which format wins by its merits. I'm guessing the BD contigent would not like this, however, since that would pretty much take away BD's primary selling point: forcing consumers to buy the less featured, more expensive players by making lucrative backroom deals with studios. Without the exclusive content, BD would just be an overpriced & underfeatured format.

But really it's about the marketing of hd-dvd that has failed it. It had a huge lead last year, and instead of capitalizing on it and building on it, the strategy was to lay low for 11 months while we gear up for November and December of 2007. You can say that exclusivity is the biggest bd selling point, and you'd be right (along with commitment to lossless audio and more space). But just because hd-dvd decided to go with less protection on their discs for content, and no region coding, they lost any chance of getting more studios on board. They even went months and months with better releases on Paramount and Warner titles. But blu-ray still has sold more. While the strategy to include a bd drive in the ps3 is still questionable for the video game side of things, it is unquestionably a success for the bd format.

HD-DVD demands that all studios become neutral in order to win. Without that, it will eventually shrivel up and die out because of fewer content. Rather than marketing its advantage and spending the money to establish a brand, it ceded all ground to Sony and the blu-ray marketing juggernaut. This is something I predicted would happen last summer...that blu-ray would outmarket Toshiba. Toshiba had their chance to make hd-dvd the standard, but fumbled the ball. Sony is taking it back for a touchdown as we speak.