what if Microsoft pay warner to stay red?

[yellowblanket]

to prolonging the war thus giving them more time to master digital download?

i dont think 150 mil is much for microsoft if it would give them 8 months time frame
thoughts?

[mystiksuicide]

Originally Posted by yellowblanket

to prolonging the war thus giving them more time to master digital download?

i dont think 150 mil is much for microsoft if it would give them 8 months time frame
thoughts?

They where offered more than 150 mil and Warner rejected that already.

[stockstar1138]

Originally Posted by yellowblanket

to prolonging the war thus giving them more time to master digital download?

i dont think 150 mil is much for microsoft if it would give them 8 months time frame
thoughts?

wb has already rejected larger MS bribes.

[haushausman]

I just thank Michael Bay for speaking up and exposing M$. Movie studios want to know that whoever they partner with, that they are dedicated to releasing the best quality versions of the films that they spend millions making. Microsoft is just fine with releasing "good enough" HD movies until they can try and corner downloads. Warner realizes this now and hopefully will not want to continue any sort of business with them.

[Moefiz]

Why does MS dig themselves more into a hole by offering bribes, it just make them look so bad.

[Go Blu]

I don't think Warner wants to be seen as the scum sell-out of the industry they already saw what happened to Paramount.

Which by the way goes agaist all business sense, and logic.

[Kairav]

Originally Posted by Moefiz

Why does MS dig themselves more into a hole by offering bribes, it just make them look so bad.

I would not download a single thing released via DD from MS.

[Blu-Style]

Originally Posted by Moefiz

Why does MS dig themselves more into a hole by offering bribes, it just make them look so bad.

Do you know what´s the difference between God an Micro$oft ?

.....

God doesn´t try to be M$...

[NutsAboutPS3]

Originally Posted by yellowblanket

to prolonging the war thus giving them more time to master digital download?

i dont think 150 mil is much for microsoft if it would give them 8 months time frame
thoughts?

Why speculate about something that won't happen?

Buy Warner Blu-rays, and enjoy Warner becoming Blu-ray exclusive next year as a result.

Digital downloads are a non-starter, they do not compare favourably with other ways of watching movies, not by price, quality, or convenience.

[Kairav]

Originally Posted by NutsAboutPS3

Why speculate about something that won't happen?

Buy Warner Blu-rays, and enjoy Warner becoming Blu-ray exclusive next year as a result.

Digital downloads are a non-starter, they do not compare favourably with other ways of watching movies, not by price, quality, or convenience.

I agree. Not everyone has 1-2 TB of HDD space to store 3-4 Gig movies. All the DD movies will have compressed data.

[Moefiz]

Originally Posted by NutsAboutPS3

Why speculate about something that won't happen?

Buy Warner Blu-rays, and enjoy Warner becoming Blu-ray exclusive next year as a result.

Digital downloads are a non-starter, they do not compare favourably with other ways of watching movies, not by price, quality, or convenience.

I enjoy my movies that i have.I can't imagine downloading a movie to look at on my Tv.

[mtl007]

Downloads are not going to replace physical media anytime soon. It may be in addition to but certainly not in replacement of.

The issue comes in many folds, MS does not own the bandwidth nor the content, they are a technology company. Unless everybody gets enough money out of a technology, it is not going to fly.

HD in mobile devices does not make sense because of the size of the screenl. If you are talking about SD or lower, it is readily available already and while it did slow down DVD growth somewhat, it certainly did not replace it. If you are talking about something like the cable pay-per-view, it is already here and it certainly did not kill DVDs nor BD sales. Most people don't like paying for a movie over and over again.

For me, the 9.99-13.99 BD bogo are at a price point where I will not even consider a download or even buying from ebay. If the physical media's are at the original listed price point $30+ but download are at $5.99, then it is a different story. Still I will not download movies I know I want to watch many times or carry to my friends' place to share.

If the download pricing is like Netflix where for about $24 a month, you get "unlimited" number of 'near HD' movie downloads, it may work because people are subscribing to rentals already. It makes sense to Netflix because it saves them in postage and handling. However, in such cases, I think the threat is more to the cable and video rental companies then to the physical media sales.

[monkyman]

If it takes 8-10 years to get downloadable movies to the mainstream, would it be worth MS paying Paramount AND Warner 150 mill each for 18 months at a time? Thats 1.8 billion dollars for 9 years, I don't think that will happen. If they COULD have got both Paramount AND Warner in August, I think they were hopeing to end the war in 18 months, thus not having to continue payments. Warner refused,
paramount accepted, now if Warner goes BLU, MS/Toshiba will not lose another 150 mill once the Paramount contract is up. It was a gamble they lost on thanks to Warners good sense.

[hardcore_canadian]

Help me out Guys, where does it actually say that Paramount signed a contract for 18 months? Wishful Thinking? Because they've repeated over and over there is no specified contract length.

Also, if Downloadable content works out, Apple and iTunes will be the people making lots of money off of it, nobody downloads anythiong from Microsoft anyways

[DeeChizzle]

I'd think there would have to be a specified contract length. I mean Paramount is dumb, but are they dumb enough to sign a contract that obligates them to an indefinite amount of time?

[cartier]

Originally Posted by hardcore_canadian

Help me out Guys, where does it actually say that Paramount signed a contract for 18 months? Wishful Thinking? Because they've repeated over and over there is no specified contract length.

Also, if Downloadable content works out, Apple and iTunes will be the people making lots of money off of it, nobody downloads anythiong from Microsoft anyways

It was reported by the New York Times and was confirmed by other sources including Reuters. I believe the tech officer of the company said it was an indefinite commitment, meaning there was no set period of time. However, more than likely if after 18 months the tide has not turned then Paramount can do as they wish. There is no way they could say in 18 months we will review our HD policy. That would only make them look even worse off in the eyes of the public and mitigate the impact of their switch to HD DVD. Fortunately the NYT and others did this for them. Now people are saying in 18 months they will be back, so there is no major change in consumer preference.

[hardcore_canadian]

Originally Posted by cartier

It was reported by the New York Times and was confirmed by other sources including Reuters. I believe the tech officer of the company said it was an indefinite commitment, meaning there was no set period of time. However, more than likely if after 18 months the tide has not turned then Paramount can do as they wish. There is no way they could say in 18 months we will review our HD policy. That would only make them look even worse off in the eyes of the public and mitigate the impact of their switch to HD DVD. Fortunately the NYT and others did this for them. Now people are saying in 18 months they will be back, so there is no major change in consumer preference.

That's the answer I've been looking for. Now i have to go check those sources, but thanks!

[darinp2]

Originally Posted by yellowblanket

to prolonging the war thus giving them more time to master digital download?

i dont think 150 mil is much for microsoft if it would give them 8 months time frame
thoughts?

If Amir was still in a position with any real power within Microsoft maybe they would be helping Toshiba more, but I think people have the wrong idea about how much Microsoft truely supports HD DVD at this point. I think there is a reason those losses of hundreds of millions of dollars are showing up on Toshiba's books and I bet you don't see huge losses on Microsoft's books from this stuff. Microsoft does have a lot of money, but they still have to account for certain things and answer to their shareholders (along with wanting to spend their money wisely). Like the losses in the XBOX division that many shareholders have been complaining about and where I'm pretty sure Microsoft wouldn't want to keep that division from making a profit or increase its losses much just for HD DVD's sake.

--Darin

[JTK]

MS and Toshiba already blew their wad on Paramount. They can't afford what it would cost to bribe a studio like Warner, especially if they're in an outright bidding war against the combined might of the BDA.

[juanleche]

Originally Posted by mystiksuicide

They where offered more than 150 mil and Warner rejected that already.

I bet it makes Paramount salty to know that they could have got more out of the bribe.