Paramount HD DVD payoff mentioned in Viacom financials

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Originally Posted by Kris Deering

I would love nothing more than to have Blu-ray at the same level as DVD is now a few years from now. But I'm not going to just outright believe it is a sure thing. Despite what others here say about me, we all want the same thing. I just don't subscribe to the blind faith that it is a sure thing now that HD DVD is gone or the childish poking at "red ants" as if they were any worse than the zealots so often on display here.

Did Chicken Little want the sky to fall?

I'd be very surprised, given the need for premium HD equipment and the premium cost of the software, that BD could match DVDs rise at the mass adoption point. But, so what? Why does it have to match or beat DVDs rate to be declared a success?

If it is 1/3 BD and 2/3 DVD in five years, why would that be a failure? The CE, having made next to nothing on DVD for years and years, would be making something on that 1/3 share (success). And the studios would probably be making close to 50/50 profit (perhaps even better) out of that situation (success).

Has the bar for declaring success been raised to total obliteration of the format that proceeded it?

Can I declare cassette retroactively a completely failure?

Gary