The rumor is that Warner is coming aboard soon

[Marcusarilius]

This may also be why Warner has not announced titles like Batman Begins, "V", Matrix, etc. Internally, they already know which format they will go with in 08. That much is certain and from all HD Movie disk sales, 70% BD sales on Black Friday and so forth, Warner may have these titles already in mind for BD release in 08 and intend to do it as only blu can. No more low-ball encodes, HD DVD PQ and SQ limitations. Which is why we have been scratching our heads as to no anouncment from Warner on these titles. Warner: blu exclusive in the first half (or first quarter) of 08. Universal, Dreamworks: at least duel format in the third or fourth quarter of 08.

[Rob Tomlin]

Originally Posted by Esox50

Just to be clear, the Vice Chairman from Lion's Gate said that the RUMOR was that Warner was going Blu. That means he's repeating the rumor he's heard around town/Hollywood, not necessarily that he's got first hand knowledge or is involved in the situation personally. Incidentally, Penton-Man's response on this board was basically, "Yes, that is indeed the rumor going around town."

This is significantly different than someone claiming flat out that he knows WB is going Blu.

Well said (as usual) Esox.

That said, I will take postive BD rumors from people in Hollywood as a GOOD sign!

[Rob Tomlin]

Originally Posted by JAC6

The New York Times has picked up the story, though is appears largely based on the Businessweek story:

In Hi-Def DVD Wars, Warner Bros’ Choice May Tip It in Blu-Ray’s Favor
http://www.nytimes.com/paidcontent/P...ref=technology

This is more good news for Blu. Even though the NY Times article is based on the Business Week article, printing the idea that Warner is leaning Blu from a major publication like this is just tends to tip the scales a bit further in that direction.

[Razzy]

Originally Posted by Rob Tomlin

This is more good news for Blu. Even though the NY Times article is based on the Business Week article, printing the idea that Warner is leaning Blu from a major publication like this is just tends to tip the scales a bit further in that direction.

...and not a peep from Warner denying anything......yet. You'd think they would have said something by now.

[jason_grumpy]

Originally Posted by w_tanoto

i would be leaned to agree with the deal. We lost para (10% of market and ranked number 5), while they lost warner (not sure the percentage, but I think it's ranked number 4). Besides, I got no para movie that interest me. While fellow blus went out after that payoff announcement to get the last remaining para BD. I sit and relaxed in my room. Until now, para is the only studio that is not represented in my high definition collection (Uni is represented by 2 HD DVD), while the rest of my HDM are BD (38 as of today)

Paramount, although sudden and drastic was not a horrible loss for Blu-Ray. Most of their releases up to that point were ho-hum, with only the Jack Ryan collection interesting me. Any movies of importance (maybe minus the Star Trek franchise) were excluded from the deal thanks to a certain Mr Spielberg. Somehow I think that Spielberg is a huge BR supporter behind the scenes, and I bet he does a lot of promoting of Blu-Ray to fellow directors (cough Lucas cough). He effectively neutered Paramount into what could be released. The payoff of $150 mil was essentially for Transformers, and Transformers alone to win one week of Nielson numbers. Talk about fail, as it didn't work and backfired.

As far as the 10% loss of market share, that was quickly made up by the return of Fox. I might add that Fox came back playing hardball, from the aggressive release slate to the quality of the encodes. They went from being 'ok', to mostly phenomenal transfers that in some cases rival Disney.

Warner is in an entirely different league than Paramount. Their catalog is extensive, huge, and popular. They also seem to care about HDM, being one of the key contributers to both formats. Either side losing Warner would be devastating. Warner leaving BR means stalemate and HDM never takes off (50/50 split).. or Warner joining BR means the war is over, forcing Paramount and Universal to follow suit (75/25).

[richard lichtenfelt]

Originally Posted by Esox50

That's not true at all. Sometimes there are exec's within ones own company who do not know of a pending move like this. Thus, I doubt the guy from Lion's Gate has any first hand knowledge of the situation. I can speak from experience. I am a CFO, and over 10 yrs ago I learned about a large acquisition/merger involving my own company in the newspaper in the morning on the way to work. I just wasn't on the small "team" involved in the deal.

These types of things are very closed. It is, however, entirely possible that this guy has a "friend" in the the biz who is directly involved and who shouldn't have said anything to him. If that happened, under no circumstances should the LG guy have discussed that w/ newsweek. Thus, I am inclined to suspect he's just flippantly & calmly discussing the scuttlebut making its way around Hollywood (which Penton confirmed).

If WB is pissed about this, it's most likely not because of the Lion's Gate guy, it's because someone in the inner circle somewhere talked at some point earlier than the Newsweek article.

Who's to say WB didn't ask the vice chairman of Lionsgates Studios to leak this?

[blu2]

Originally Posted by Razzy

...and not a peep from Warner denying anything......yet. You'd think they would have said something by now.

The last event that drove rumours (the Silverberg comments reported by HMM) took 6 days to squash last time.

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/1135

[Crackbone]

Originally Posted by Razzy

...and not a peep from Warner denying anything......yet. You'd think they would have said something by now.

They did, for dissection fellas :
http://www.soundadviceblog.com/?p=677

Web forums were ablaze this morning because of a controversial report by Rich Greenfield of Pali Research, saying in 2008 Warner Bros. would cease support of HD DVD and become Blu-ray only. Finding this suspicious, I contacted Jim Noonan, Warner Bros. Senior Vice President and General Manager, for clarification. I received a response almost immediately and his reply is as follows:

”Dear Mr. Lindich, We have made no decision to change our present policy which is to produce in both HD DVD and Blu-ray.”

No denial, no silence as one would expect if change was in the works… I received a quick confirmation that their policy won’t be changing. Nothing surprising here, given Warner’s strong support of the HD DVD format with exclusives such as The Matrix and Batman Begins, as well as Warner’s embracing of HD DVD’s web interactivity on the new Harry Potter titles. To learn more about the differences between the HD DVD and Blu-ray Harry Potter titles, see The State of HD DVD at gizmodo.com.

It is possible Warner could swing one or the other in 2008, but for now, it’s undecided.

[spicynacho]

Originally Posted by Razzy

...and not a peep from Warner denying anything......yet. You'd think they would have said something by now.

Mr. Sound Advice HD DVD Buttplugg says he contacted someone at WB and got a response that: ”Dear Mr. Lindich, We have made no decision to change our present policy which is to produce in both HD DVD and Blu-ray.”
http://www.soundadviceblog.com/?p=677

[GregBlu5]

Originally Posted by Razzy

...and not a peep from Warner denying anything......yet. You'd think they would have said something by now.

Everyone else is saying it all for them. They don't need to say a word.

[Esox50]

Originally Posted by richard lichtenfelt

Who's to say WB didn't ask the vice chairman of Lionsgates Studios to leak this?

I think you forgot the smiley on your post...right?

[Alan Gordon]

Originally Posted by jason_grumpy

The payoff of $150 mil was essentially for Transformers, and Transformers alone to win one week of Nielson numbers. Talk about fail, as it didn't work and backfired.

The $100 million paid to DreamWorks was for "Transformers" and "Shrek 3".

The $50 million given to Paramount was most likely for "Cloverfield", "Beowulf" and "Iron Man"... given Paramount's release slate for 4Q 2008.

~Alan

[Marcusarilius]

Originally Posted by Razzy

...and not a peep from Warner denying anything......yet. You'd think they would have said something by now.

A statement of denial would speak volumes for continued duel format support. Warner's No statement of denial speaks volumes in what they are not saying. Namely, BD exclusivity. I thought it was interesting when a few months ago at the Blu-ray festival that the Warner Rep sort of spilled the beans and then the company started publically back peddling on the statements. To me, it is obvious that Warner at that time and for the most part right now, intends to be descrete about the decision, but we are beyond reading between the lines on this question. Seems all too obvious their intentions for Blu-ray excusivity in 08. I can garantee that the Paramount example and fiasco will not be imitated by Warner.

[richard lichtenfelt]

Originally Posted by blu2

The last rumour (the offhand comments reported by HMM) took a while for them to squash as well I believe.

They never were squashed. highdefdigest.com contacted WB to ask them about Mr. Silverberg's comments at the blu-ray promotion event and someone from the marketing strategy dept. said that they were currently neutral and would be for an indefinite time period. They also said that they were keeping an eye on sales trends to gauge any future action.
Mr. Silverberg never recanted his statements. WB never told the press except for hdd, who contacted them, and their response was very vague.

[atomik kinder]

Originally Posted by Razzy

...and not a peep from Warner denying anything......yet. You'd think they would have said something by now.

I was just thinking the same thing. Remember how fast they were to issue statements about their neutrality before?

[SS316SRV]

Originally Posted by richard lichtenfelt

Who's to say WB didn't ask the vice chairman of Lionsgates Studios to leak this?

And the moon landing was done on a sound stage JUST to upstage the Soviets....

[clownface]

The one thing that makes Warner going exclusively Blu ray seem unlikely is that they've been canceling Blu rays like the Led Zepplin disc while still putting out the HD DVD That is SCARY to me!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope that all of this SPECULATION doesn't backfire on us!

[SS316SRV]

Originally Posted by clownface

The one thing that makes Warner going exclusively Blu ray seem unlikely is that they've been canceling Blu rays like the Led Zepplin disc while still putting out the HD DVD That is SCARY to me!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope that all of this SPECULATION doesn't backfire on us!

They pulled the Zep release on HD DVD as well.

[WickyWoo]

To quash some of this

1- No deal has been signed by Warner with either side, nor is one pending any minute now

2- Batman, V and the rest of them had been delayed for profile 1.1, nothing more, nothing less. Batman will be targeted for the theatrical or home video release of Dark Knight, not before. The other titles will probably come before it does

[SS316SRV]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

To quash some of this

1- No deal has been signed by Warner with either side, nor is one pending any minute now

2- Batman, V and the rest of them had been delayed for profile 1.1, nothing more, nothing less. Batman will be targeted for the theatrical or home video release of Dark Knight, not before. The other titles will probably come before it does

So you're telling me there's a chance...