Paramount's HD DVD Decision Decried by Analysts

[J_UNTITLED]

From IMDb.com


- The decision by Paramount/DreamWorks to release high-definition discs exclusively in the HD DVD format may result in short-term benefit for the company (it will reportedly receive $150 million in promotional value and cash from the HD DVD camp), but it is likely to decrease its overall sales of high-definition discs significantly and delay the public's decision to purchase players for either HD DVD or Blu-ray, several analysts agreed Wednesday. Jim Bottoms, CEO of media research firm Understanding & Solutions, was quoted in Home Media Retail magazine as telling a research seminar in Beverly Hills Wednesday, "The weight of the industry is still very much behind Blu-ray ... We do not believe overall [that the Paramount announcement is] going to change the outcome of the battle." Its only effect, he said, is to prolong confusion over the format issue. The announcement was greeted with dismay in Terre Haute, IN, where Sony has spent $81 million to upgrade a Blu-ray manufacturing plant. Richard Doherty, research director for The Envisioneering Group in Seaford, NY, told today's (Thursday) Indianapolis Star that "the Hollywood jet-set club [is] playing chess, and consumers feel like they're pawns in the game." In an editorial, the Los Angeles Times commented on Wednesday: "Hollywood needs to let consumers and the market pick a winner, just as they did with Betamax and VHS. And consumers can't do that unless all the studios release their movies in both formats."


LINK: http://www.imdb.com/news/sb/2007-08-23/