Letter To Paramount

[E-Dogg]

I decided to contact Paramount directly on their website and suggest you all do the same to display your disdain for the decision to support HD-DVD exclusively.


"I am writing to you to express my extreme disappointment with your most recent announcement to go HD-DVD exclusive. I guess as they say money talks and it's a shame as a proud Blu-Ray supporter that you chose to support a dying format simply for a quick buck, when sales clearly showed Blu-Ray selling 2-1 compared to HD-DVD. Please know I will never support another movie that you release in the theaters or on home video. See you at the finish line when HD-DVD fails. It's death is inevitable so thank you for prolonging this format war at the cost of us consumers. I hope you are proud of yourselves."

Sincerly, Eric J

[cawgijoe]

Please post a link.

Also, I went in and sent them an e-mail through the Viacom link and contact page.

Thsi needs to be done "en masse" and quickly. They need to realize the mess they have created.

[supersix4]

Can I use your letter... I dont wanna type a new one hope we wont be like the ps3 group boycotting the DMC4 going to 360

[ottscay]

I already sent one, I am writing one to Viacom investor relationships now.

[movies3]

link plz i will type one as well

[Gamma_Winstead]

Amen, Link please?

[cajmoyper]

Yeah, this will definitely offset all the letters from HD DVD fanboys to studios like fox and disney.

[clyon]

You have to write a letter NOT an Email. Most emails are not read & just deleted. Handwriten letters are the best.

[WriteSimply]

What cylon said. Print it out, sign it and post it.


fuad

[Proteus]

The ink is dry on this one guys.

I'm afraid this is a big win for digital downloading (why microsoft pony'd up the dough for it... Toshiba is too stupid to realize it also apparently).

Right now our best bet is to influence _retailers_ by using letter writing campaigns and other means to get them to _end the format war that is hurting all consumers and hurting their profits by lack of adoption meaning less packaged media sales_.

At this point retailers need to take a stand. It is the only way it will get resolved. The only other way is if the remaining BD studios are all bought off and locked in signed deals and hardware manufacturers are willing to undersell HDDVD to win it. Otherwise it will come down to money. And, let's face it... The BDA isn't spending any.

Sony just announced $100 million ad campaign about high def that is very vague on blu-ray when you look at the existing POP in the market for it. The HDDVD promotion group just gave that much to Paramount alone to sign the contract. Sony, et al, needs to pony up and make sacrifices to ensure adoption at this point or Blu-ray will be done if HDDVD keeps outspending them. They should have pony'd up months ago and just ended it right then and there instead of waiting. That alone would have probably prevented this tragedy for the consumer.

The only bright side here is that the HDDVD promotions group may have just blown their entire wad on Paramount meaning Universal might not get a cut next year and could release on BD. Wouldn't it be interesting if their plan was to 'buy' one studio per year just to get them to release their catalog on the media then 'letting them go' after that? Would ensure a huge selection and sampling from all studios on the format.

Oh yeah, Steven Speilberg is Executive Producer on Transformers. In fact, he's Executive Producer on almost every major release Paramount has had for a very long time. This could be interesting to consider.

[goku3]

what address should it be sent to? Viacom or Paramount? Anyone knows them? Please post the information so users can know directly where to find it.

Thanks

[gvortex7]

Originally Posted by goku3

what address should it be sent to? Viacom or Paramount? Anyone knows them? Please post the information so users can know directly where to find it.

Thanks

Send em' both a copy! Send it to "everyone and their mothers" there!!!!!

[dobyblue]

From: Me
Sent: August 20, 2007 1:34 PM
To: 'Mary_Kincaid@Paramount.com'; 'ir@dreamworksanimation.com'
Subject: Viacom

Dear Mary and Rich,
Please allow me to express my deepest concerns regarding this press release issued today by Viacom.
http://www.viacom.com/NEWS/NewsText.aspx?RID=1042073
The only market that remains still up in the air over which high definition optical format is the obvious successor is North America. I have been following the numbers from Nielsen Videoscan and have seen the following for Paramount’s releases.
Shooter on Blu-ray outsold the HD DVD release 1.71:1 in its first week.
Disturbia on Blu-ray outsold the HD DVD release 2.04:1 in its first week.
For other neutral studios like Warner the big budget release of “300” on Blu-ray outsold the HD DVD 1.91:1 in the first week of release and 2.47:1 in the second week of release.
With 2 million Blu-ray devices in North America and 350,000 HD DVD devices, the demographic of the Transformers movie seems guaranteed to be a massive success on the Blu-ray format, possibly selling one million discs over the holiday season which would work out to roughly $25 million of retail. Shrek 3 is another movie that seems tailored to the current mass of Blu-ray disc ownership thanks in part to the Playstation 3.
With Blu-ray players coming out from Panasonic, Sony, Pioneer, Sharp, Denon, Philips and Samsung versus Toshiba and rebadged Toshiba standalone players coupled with the current sales advantage that shows no signs of changing it is mind-boggling that Dreamworks and Paramount would conceive of making such a decision that seems foolhardy in any light.
I currently support the Blu-ray format and have several of Paramount’s releases and have been looking forward to future releases now that Paramount seems to be moving to join Disney/BVHE and Sony in utilizing lossless audio on their HD releases. With today’s announcement I feel very saddened and anguished that Paramount will be backing a format with technically inferior specifications that does not allow for pristine 1080p viewing the way the Blu-ray format does. I will not be buying a second HD player, I will continue to use the Playstation 3 as my main high definition disc player. I know from reading several forums around the internet than many people are in the same boat as I am, whereby currently the only advantage to buying an HD DVD player would be to watch Universal films.
With this announcement Paramount has stepped into an unfavourable light and I will likely be renting the Transformers movie on DVD instead of purchasing it on Blu-ray disc.
I hope Paramount and Dreamworks will reconsider this very flawed decision before these blockbusters are released.
Sincerely,

[JTK]

Paramount is far too busy counting the money they received in the red briefcases to care about reading anyone's letters.

Sorry.

[cajmoyper]

Originally Posted by JTK

Paramount is far too busy counting the money they received in the red briefcases to care about reading anyone's letters.

Sorry.

I couldn't agree more.

[WriteSimply]

Actually, a lot of people here are quite right. Send letters not only to Paramount and Viacom, but draft a different letter to retailers such as Target, Best Buy, Blockbuster and Netflix.

So THREE LETTERS, not e-mails to these companies.


fuad

[tron3]

Paramount to drop Blu-ray high-def DVDs

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070820/...odO0Fo2SgjtBAF


Snipit:
Paramount and DreamWorks aren't the only ones choosing sides.

"Spider-Man 3" will only be available in the Blu-ray DVD format when it is released by Sony Pictures, while people with Blu-ray players won't be able to enjoy the action-thriller "The Bourne Ultimatum," which Universal Pictures will release only in HD DVD.

In terms of discs sold, Blu-ray has always had the lead. The format recently got a big boost as Blockbuster Inc. announced it would stock only Blu-ray titles when it expands its high-def DVD offerings this year.

Target Inc., the nation's second-largest retailer, said it will only sell Blu-ray DVD players in its stores in the fourth quarter.

With Paramount dropping Blu-ray support, Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. remains the only major studio releasing movies in both formats.

Sony Corp.'s Sony Pictures, News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox, The Walt Disney Co., and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer are releasing only in Blu-ray. Universal, owned by General Electric Co., backs HD DVD exclusively.

What are these morons doing! Driving this wedge will only broaden the loss of consumer confidence. Maybe this is a marketing ploy to measure public reaction. Personally, I'll live with Transformers on SD DVD if I must, but not ready to give up blu-ray. I just got this thing!

[cawgijoe]

Addresses please someone.....and e-mail links........make it a "sticky"

[CptGreedle]

I don't know if writing a letter would help at all. I doubt they big guys ever see those kinds of things. They have receptionists who filter that stuff out and shred or file the things they don't want to look at.
This move is purely based on instant gratification and greed. It is a sad sad day to see another huge company turn its back on the evidence and sales figures of a popular and growing format to support one that pays them off.
Paramount has shown their true colors by allowing themselves to be bought off so easily. Dreamworks Animation is also on thin ice with me. The only major film franchise they have going for them is the Shrek films (yes they have others but this is the biggest seller). By taking in all that money, it only assures that they will loose more as time goes by.

I do not think they will be able to get that many HD-DVD exclusive titles out by the Holidays to make it worth while, but we will see. This will definitely extend the war beyond what we all hoped. I originally estimated that with only Universal backing HD-DVD, the war would be over or close to it by next fall. However, now with Paramount making this bad move, we will have to endure a longer war that will damage the HD sales world-wide and further alienate consumers from the format!
This is bad for both sides really, but especially for Blu-ray.

[Leon]

Kelley_Avery@paramount.com