Paramount HD DVD payoff mentioned in Viacom financials

[Dynamo of Eternia]

Originally Posted by Musashi

We can add this to the stack of proof.

Ultimately, I can't help but think the move hurt them more than it paid.

Somehow I doubt that to be true (the part about this hurting them more than it paid). While I understand the frustration that this gave to many Blu-Ray fans, the Hi-Def home video market at the time was (and largely still is) a very niche market.

Odds are if they had stayed neutral or gone Blu-Ray exclusive (with no pay-off for that exclusivity), they wouldn't have made up the money that they got from the HD-DVD pay off in disc sales during that time, since for the most part DVD sales during that time were still their big profit center.

And as the quote in the first post of this thread states, they had a 22% percent revenue bump because of the pay off, rather than the decline they would have otherwise expected (in theory still releasing movies on both formats in that scenario).

Now that HD-DVD is dead and they are releasing on Blu-Ray again, they will simply gradually release the movies that would have been on Blu-Ray to begin with if they had been making it all along. They may have lost a few sales here or there in would-be day-and-date releases with people buying the regular DVDs instead, but in the grand scheme of things that is very small potatoes.

Most Blu-Ray fans who want any particular Paramount movie on Blu-Ray will simply buy it when it is made available. The only ones who won't will be the very, very small handful who might choose not to buy Paramount movies in the form of some kind of futile protest that in the long run will mean nothing because the amount of people who will actually skip buying movies that they want because of a protest like this will be very few and very far between.

This may have been a terrible thing from the standpoint of Blu-Ray fans/consumers and for the format war in general (at the time they made this deal), but from a business standpoint, in the interests of Paramount, Viacom, and their shareholders, clearly this wasn't such a bad idea afterall. They got almost $30 million, and only had to stop releasing their movies on Blu-Ray for a few months. Somehow I doubt this is going to cause them a tremendous amount of hurt.

[ellldiablo]

Honestly WHO CARES?????? Blu was victorious so they droped the ball on that. Let's just get the titles out cause thats all that really matters now.

[PepeGameblouse]

Originally Posted by Dynamo of Eternia

Somehow I doubt that to be true (the part about this hurting them more than it paid). While I understand the frustration that this gave to many Blu-Ray fans, the Hi-Def home video market at the time was (and largely still is) a very niche market.

Odds are if they had stayed neutral or gone Blu-Ray exclusive (with no pay-off for that exclusivity), they wouldn't have made up the money that they got from the HD-DVD pay off in disc sales during that time, since for the most part DVD sales during that time were still their big profit center.

And as the quote in the first post of this thread states, they had a 22% percent revenue bump because of the pay off, rather than the decline they would have otherwise expected (in theory still releasing movies on both formats in that scenario).

Now that HD-DVD is dead and they are releasing on Blu-Ray again, they will simply gradually release the movies that would have been on Blu-Ray to begin with if they had been making it all along. They may have lost a few sales here or there in would-be day-and-date releases with people buying the regular DVDs instead, but in the grand scheme of things that is very small potatoes.

Most Blu-Ray fans who want any particular Paramount movie on Blu-Ray will simply buy it when it is made available. The only ones who won't will be the very, very small handful who might choose not to buy Paramount movies in the form of some kind of futile protest that in the long run will mean nothing because the amount of people who will actually skip buying movies that they want because of a protest like this will be very few and very far between.

This may have been a terrible thing from the standpoint of Blu-Ray fans/consumers and for the format war in general (at the time they made this deal), but from a business standpoint, in the interests of Paramount, Viacom, and their shareholders, clearly this wasn't such a bad idea afterall. They got almost $30 million, and only had to stop releasing their movies on Blu-Ray for a few months. Somehow I doubt this is going to cause them a tremendous amount of hurt.

i would have to agree with that big time. they made more money right there in one day rather than over the course of a few months

[ganthc]

If Transformers is released with a lossles track, I don't see even the most die hard blu-ray fan hater of Paramount not going out and buying it. Paramount knew this, and they took a risk siding with hd-dvd. In their minds the scenarios played out as follows:

If hd-dvd wins, they got $50, and were seen as having foresight into the format war. And all the blu-ray people would buy hd-dvd and get their movies.

If hd-dvd loses, they got $50, and could switch sides and just release all their movies in blu, and get those sales anyways.

In either case, Paramount made out like bandits. Transformers with lossless audio will sell like gangbusters. Fences are mended, life goes on after the war.

[mjbethancourt]

I'm not buying it... because I have no interest in that movie.