Paramount HD DVD payoff mentioned in Viacom financials

[Dynamo of Eternia]

Originally Posted by BluOgre

Only $29 million??????

Honestly they could have lost that much not releasing on Blu-ray. I thought it was like $100+ million lol. If it was only $29 Paramount was a bunch of idiots. Transformers alone lost them millions in sales. My guess is they could have sold a quarter of a million units for that title alone.

You are dreaming if you actually think that the sales of Paramount Blu-Ray discs during the time frame of their HD-DVD exclusivity would have earned them $29 million or more. It was then, and is still now, a niche product. I do hope it goes more mainstream in time, but in the short run Paramount made much more money than they otherwise would have, and in the long run they are releasing on Blu-Ray again anyway so it really won't have a long-term negative effect.

Did you actually read the first post? Viacom and Paramount were expecting LOSSES (compared to the previous year) prior to the HD-DVD agreement. That means that if they had never gone HD-DVD exclusive and stuck with their existing business model of releasing movies on both Hi-Def formats, they still would have been projecting coming up with less profit than the year before. The HD-DVD deal is what prevented that from happening.

I don't blame people for being upset and annoyed about what Paramount did. Obviously it was very frustrating for many, many Blu-Ray fans.

However, people need to look at the reality of the situation. From a business standpoint for the interests of Paramount, Viacom, and their investors, it didn't turn out so bad. They made their extra money, and now that HD-DVD has died off, they are making movies on Blu-Ray again.

You can be upset and frustrated, but to say that they would have made $29 million in PROFIT (mind you, the key word is profit) from the sales of Blu-Ray movies over the past few months is grossly inaccurate. For each disc sold, some of the money is recouping the cost of making the disc, and the rest gets divided in a few different directions, with Paramount only getting a certain chunk of the profit. Plus keep in mind that it's likely that many of the people who only had Blu-Ray and not HD-DVD during this time likely just went out and bought the DVD versions of the movies that were impacted by this deal. I realize some people heald off, but I would imagine for any movie that these people REALLY wanted to get, there were more who caved in and bought the DVD compared to those who heald off from getting the movie at all.

It's funny how lies, inaccurate information, and 'FUD' are so looked down upon around here when they are working against the Blu-Ray format, but when those sorts things are used in favor of Blu-Ray (as is the case here with people trying to convince themselves and others that Paramount & Viacom are hurting more from their HD-DVD deal than they would be if they had never made that deal), somehow no one calls anyone else on it and it's just perfectly fine.

Don't get me wrong, I love the Blu-Ray format, and I am glad that we now have one primary Hi-Def disc format that all of the studios are gravitating towards. I personally wish Paramount had never made that deal, either. I was very frustrated about it just like many of you were. But I can't argue with how it HAS worked out for them, regardless of my personal opinions of the situation.