As all of you have probably heard by now, Warner Bro. and it's affiliated studios have decided to back Blu-ray exclusively later this year. With this shift in power, the Blu-ray camp now has approx. 70% of hollywood's major studio support. With only two major studios exlcusively supporting HD-DVD, the balance has shifted. What does this mean? Simply that we will see more movies come out in the Blu-Ray HD format vs. HD-DVD and increasing pressure upon Universal and Paramount to switch their gears.
What's even more amazing is that Universal and Paramount are likely to support both sometime this year because:
- Universal's exclusivity contract ended this month (Jan. 2008) and has not been renewed.
- Paramount's exclusivity contract had a clause in it to where they could end the contract if Warner Bros. went Blu-ray exclusive.
The only reason they are likely to support both would simply be a PR move to hold Toshiba's HD-DVD dying hand. Then only to concede if Toshiba themselves were to admit defeat and give up their pursuit of their format. Thus these studios could keep a good reputation w/ Toshiba. Of course, this is all just speculation and opinion on my half.
