Ask the Insiders: Putting the Last Nails in the Coffin

[scott1256ca]

I miss a few posts, and suddenly I have no idea what people are talking about

Are you pretty confident that this is their objective? Is that why they are continuing to push so hard with their last breath in the market? How likely do you think a pay-off could be to end this cleanly?

I would think Toshiba would make far more off dvd disk royalties than player royalties. Especially since I hear that a lot of manufacturers don't pay the royalties, but make the players anyway (although I hear the same about the disks!).

I'm now wondering if Toshiba has offered lot's of money (or potential money) to Uni and Para to NOT support BD for now. Then they can go to the BDA/Sony and say "see they're locked up, but we can release them from their contracts if you pay us enough". Then when the BDA/Sony agrees, they exercise some escape clause in the Uni/Para contract so they don't have to pay them too much. It might be the most money the 3 of them can get from the BDA, since they have only 1 player to deal with, and can't go behind Universals back to Paramount or vice versa. Because if they get support from either studio, it severely weakens the negotiating position of the remaining studio and Toshiba.

The above of course assumes Dreamworks will follow Paramount, since Viacom owns them both.

Insiders, any comment? (have to tie it in somehow )