Paramount HD DVD payoff mentioned in Viacom financials

[tonyjk3]

Let's not forget Sony paid Warner Brothers off to go Blu Ray exclusive.

And while I enjoy Blu Ray, it wasn't a mature of a product as HD DVD and Sony has said that it doesn't care that we all have to re-buy equipment to reach profile 2.0. Features like that were already available in HD DVD.

[HeavyHitter]

The best was when we were told all of the Blu manufacturers/studios would start making/releasing HD DVD because it made so much business sense.

[Joe Cain]

Originally Posted by tonyjk3

Let's not forget Sony paid Warner Brothers off to go Blu Ray exclusive.

Sony paid WB? Link?

[bluflu]

This topic is beginning to digress.

[bluflu]

I don't like Paramount's dumb move, but it's time to move on.

[Lucy Diamond]

I'd be more apt to believe the details if it wasn't in Variety.




We'll never really know what happened.

[WickyWoo]

The only evidence of a payoff to WB is in the rantings of bitter red ants going down with the ship

This is hard and legal evidence, and no one can deny it. $29 million was the upfront payment to Paramount, more would have been given had HD DVD not died before the next check was due

[MrRoy]

Originally Posted by tonyjk3

Let's not forget Sony paid Warner Brothers off to go Blu Ray exclusive.

And while I enjoy Blu Ray, it wasn't a mature of a product as HD DVD and Sony has said that it doesn't care that we all have to re-buy equipment to reach profile 2.0. Features like that were already available in HD DVD.

Again:

It's amazing that all of those people screaming payoff at Time Warner can't find a shred of evidence for it while Paramount have mentioned it a thousand times and people won't believe it.

[HeavyHitter]

Originally Posted by tonyjk3

Let's not forget Sony paid Warner Brothers off to go Blu Ray exclusive.

And while I enjoy Blu Ray, it wasn't a mature of a product as HD DVD and Sony has said that it doesn't care that we all have to re-buy equipment to reach profile 2.0. Features like that were already available in HD DVD.

Bullshit. Where's your evidence? We just saw the evidence for Paramount.

Blu-ray is/was a more advanced, longer-term product than HD DVD which is why it did take longer to develop. Only narrow minded, short term thinkers (typically HD DVD supporters) failed to realize this. There's a reason virtually the entire industry was always behind Blu-ray and only Toshiba behind HD DVD. Most people do not care about using their Blu-ray player online so it's really a non-issue except for a few.

[Grubert]

Originally Posted by Lucy Diamond

I'd be more apt to believe the details if it wasn't in Variety.




We'll never really know what happened.

Here you have a more 'serious' release:

http://finance.paidcontent.org/paidc...wer&Ticker=VIA

[Elandyll]

If we look at engadget, that's aht the ex-HD DVD fanboys are saying to this news: That they are going to scrutinize the Fox, Warner and Dsiney financial statements to find evidences of payoffs.

Good luck to them (not that I would care that much if there was. It's business, and Toshiba/MS showed the way).
The denials are funny though on their part at this point.

[WickyWoo]

There's no question favors were done, incentives offered

The difference is that this is a flat-out bribe

[un4gvn94538]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

The only evidence of a payoff to WB is in the rantings of bitter red ants going down with the ship

This is hard and legal evidence, and no one can deny it. $29 million was the upfront payment to Paramount, more would have been given had HD DVD not died before the next check was due

and microsoft paid 50 mill. for exclusive d/l content for GTA IV? crazy!

[ps3andlovinit]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

There's no question favors were done, incentives offered

The difference is that this is a flat-out bribe

More importantly to me (ie. the consumer) .. one was done to cynically extend the war .. and one was done to end the war. Only one of them was in my best interest over the long haul.

[Kris Deering]

Honestly I think Paramount made a great move. As the previous poster said there is no way they would have made that much profit from selling both formats or even Blu-ray exclusively. I am sure the stock holders are more than happy with the decision.

As for reputation hits, please. The amount of people that actually care or have a grudge is so miniscule compared to the total market of pre-recorded media buyers that it is almost a joke to even mention. Saying that Transformers not coming out on Blu-ray hurt them is also stretching it since most people will surely be lined up for it when it comes out on Blu and I'm sure you'll see some major double dipping if it has lossless audio. If anything Paramount will make more money off the title since you may not have seen those extra sales. Universal is in a similar boat.

People here take these formats WAYYYYYYYY to personally. It is a business and studios are going to make their calls. Every company out there makes bad decisions from time to time. In this case, Paramount made a wise one economically. The only thing that hurt was Blu-ray fans didn't get some titles for a couple quarters. I'm sure they'll get over it.

[Dynamo of Eternia]

Originally Posted by mattym

financially they may have benefited, but from some quarters they look like fools. reputation damage is harder to repair than money in the bank

But it really hasn't done that much damage to their reputation. Certainly not enough to make some kind of long-term negative impact.

Again, the Hi-Def market is a niche one to begin with in it's current state (and in it's state when all of this HD-DVD exclusivity stuff went down). The majority of the movie going public didn't really know the difference between the two formats, and for those who were interested, they were just waiting for one to be the winner, without necessarily judging the companies involved. Even if they read the occasional article about Paramount going HD-DVD exclusive, most people probably didn't know the impact of that or what movies would really be affected, as many average-joes probably don't pay that close of attention as to which studio put out which movie, and they have to figure that out on a case by case (or movie by movie) basis, assuming they even cared enough to jump on the Hi-Def bandwagon at that point, which many were not.

Even amongst those who have been and are interested in Hi-Def, only so many of those people would have paid close enough attention to the war to really have a specific opinion of any one studio's decisions (because keep in mind, there are likely many other fans of Hi-Def movies out there who don't necessarily come to sites like this one every day or at all). And of those people who even cared at all, only a handful of them are bitter enough to the point of holding a grudge over it, with the majority moving on, letting the whole thing roll of their shoulders, and just being happy that their is one unifying format.

I really haven't seen any evidence at all of Paramount having some terribly tarnished reputation outside of die-hard Blu-Ray fan forums such as this one, and even around here it seems that most people are still going to buy the Paramount movies that they want when they are made avaialble, so even around here it's only a very select group who's THAT upset over the whole thing.

The truth is that most people are going to go see, buy, and enjoy the movies that they want regardless of what studio is putting it out. They will buy the DVD or Blu-Ray (depending on what kind of player they have) regardless of the whole HD-DVD fiasco.

I really don't think Paramount's reputation is as damaged as you seem to think. With all due respect, I think it's more like people such as yourself are still bitter over what Paramount did, and you want to see them suffer in some way for it, so you just hope/wish/choose to perceive them as having some unrepairable reputation as a result of their actions, even though in reality that isn't the case at all.

[WickyWoo]

Honestly I think Paramount made a great move. As the previous poster said there is no way they would have made that much profit from selling both formats or even Blu-ray exclusively. I am sure the stock holders are more than happy with the decision.

That all depends on how long their punishment period goes on. If they think that the BDA is going to return their advertising support package, royalty reductions to them any time soon they've got another thing coming. The big question is whether those would equal $29 million in value. Don't forget that studios also get a chunk (a small chunk mind you) of the larger Blu-ray royalty pie for joining up, which Paramount absolutely gave up by turning traitor.

So that's the large X factor, whether it's worth it over the long term

[JTK]

Originally Posted by Joe Cain

Sony paid WB? Link?

Nowhere, even though that's taken on a huge life of its own and I'm amazed how many people believe it and repeat it as if it were unquestioned gospel.

The contrasts couldn't be more apparent. Not even a month after Paramount went over we saw mainstream outlets talk about the bribe, bring it up, bring up figures...there was no ifs, ands, or buts.

But for this Sony Warner thing? Ne'er a shred to be seen past FUD, innuendo, and garbage.

To be fair. I don't care if Sony did "pay them off." You do whatever it takes to win. If it's ok for Toshiba to do it to Paramount then it's all good right?

But of course it isn't with some.

For HD-DVD supporters, whatever their side did was morally correct and anything done against them, no matter how legal, simply was and is not and we'll probably never full see/hear the end of the sour grapes, lies, FUD, whining, and just sheer nonsense.

"Double standard" doesn't even begin to cover it, folks.

[Kris Deering]

It is a two way street Wicky. Paramount needs Blu-ray but don't think for a second that Blu-ray doesn't need Paramount. We've seen great formats come and go due to support from studios. With so many variables out there now (downloads, on demand, DVD) Blu-ray's future is anything but completely secure. I LOVE pre-recorded high def on disc (I personally hate HD on cable) but most people I know LOVE DVD and LOVE HD movies on cable.

HD DVD may be dead, but Blu-ray still has an uphill battle for mass consumer adoption.

[WickyWoo]

You're right, it is a 2 ways street. But I think the studios are motivated enough to get to the point where buying Blu-ray players is an osmotic process over upconverting DVD. The big push for Blu isn't till next year, and unlike what's typical, they're thinking 18 months down the line instead of 18 weeks..

DVD is going to be on its way out in a few years, not as a disc format but for players, and people will buy their new releases on Blu and still enjoy their catalog stuff. 10 years down the line it'll be a Blu world.

It is a two way street Wicky. Paramount needs Blu-ray but don't think for a second that Blu-ray doesn't need Paramount. We've seen great formats come and go due to support from studios. With so many variables out there now (downloads, on demand, DVD) Blu-ray's future is anything but completely secure. I LOVE pre-recorded high def on disc (I personally hate HD on cable) but most people I know LOVE DVD and LOVE HD movies on cable.

HD DVD may be dead, but Blu-ray still has an uphill battle for mass consumer adoption.