Studio exclusivity deals?

[glenn22]

Originally Posted by Petey Pablo

I was just thinking about the exclusive titles that were release on HDDVD from WB and wanted to know exactly if this was a back room deal or not? If it was that is kinda crappy to have a studio like WB, a BDA board member release great titles exclusive to HDDVD. It just calls in to question their true loyalty. Has there been any true known fact as to the leangth of Universal's exclusivity deal and the likely hood of them going neutral or Blu-ray exclusive by the end of the 4Q?

A lot of people feel that the reason Warner released a lot of movies on HD-DVD that weren't also released on Blu-ray had a lot to do with Mr. Nickerson being in charge there. He was very much pro-HD-DVD and used to work for Toshiba. He has since resigned (no one knows if he was forced or not) and since then Warner seems to have warmed up to Blu-ray a lot.

The Universal thing has never really been confirmed in any way. Execs from Universal have been sniffing around Blu-ray facilities for quite a while, so there is interest, but impossible to say if that will turn into anything or not.