Universal slowing down upcoming releases for HD - sign for exclusive Blu-ray?

[tvted]

What I want is the catalog.

It wouldn't surpirse me if they take an extension on their contract. What have they got to lose - they are certainly not earning anything on their existing releases and a cool $100 million is certainly more profit than they will earn for the next few years from HDM unfortunately.

Unfortunatley pessimistic lil' ol' me says that this battle will be one of attrition and they last forever.

ted

[Moretonbay]

No this isn't a rumor-just something I was looking at and wondering what might happen. For all I know their agreement might expire and they continue to stay on the wrong side. Of course everyone wants the studios to go neutral because then the consumers really do get to show everyone that blu-ray really is the way to go. When the whole ridiculous Warner thread was going on everyone was saying how well timed something like Warner going exclusive would be since Universal's contract is expiring with HD but to be honest - HD is pretty desperate right now so they might easily fork out another couple hundred million to get Uni to stay with them - the problem is that Universal hasn't really had any too many Box Office Hits this year.

Only time will tell. If not Blu-Ray is still rocking with the Studio Support we do have and all the great releases that are constantly coming out and being announced.

[mfinochio]

Originally Posted by tvted

What I want is the catalog.

It wouldn't surprise me if they take an extension on their contract. What have they got to lose - they are certainly not earning anything on their existing releases and a cool $100 million is certainly more profit than they will earn for the next few years from HDM unfortunately.

Unfortunatley pessimistic lil' ol' me says that this battle will be one of attrition and they last forever.

ted

While I see your point, I do believe this will have to end within the next 6 months. Customer and studios want a single format. I believe we have gotten all the benefits from 2 formats we could, prices dropping on movies, players etc.. I feel Blu ray with all the different players only, not including movies, will win. When you have really only one company producing players they can not survive. Too many companies have a stock in blu ray for it to go away. If Warner did not take the money, I can not believe they see it as worth it in the long run, hence Uni probably will end up neutral at least, very soon.
Michael

[dialog_gvf]

Originally Posted by Moretonbay

Okay-I know some people might think doing this was pointless- but I found the whole thing rather interesting while I was doing it. Universal has a 3 week timer left on their deal with HD - there has been an obvious downward trend in what they have been releasing on HD and what is coming up for release - Could this be a possible sign of an upcoming Exclusive Deal With Blu-Ray? One can only hope!

I have to believe they haven't fully decided on their Q4 schedule yet. 12 in the entire quarter?! That would definitely be a disconnect from the rhetoric.

Didn't they say 100 titles this year, mostly Q4? They are at 44 at the end of this month. So, there is a heck of a lode to drop, or they've scaled back.

Gary

[tvine2000]

Originally Posted by jon s

don't get too excited... universal usually announces stuff in batches at the last minute... at the beginning of the year, they had nothing announced and all of a sudden... BAM!!! bunch of titles....

i was gonna say the same thing,well said.
yeh folks need to calm down
every hd forum i go to its like the soaps on tv.
lets stop the bashing and talk about how great hdm is.
theses threads should be for asking and getting answers
if you want to bash go back to high school,because thats how old some people sound on this forum.
lets stop worrying about hd dvd and worry about what bd is gonna do.
this war is far from over.

[DrinkMore]

Originally Posted by Mote

I think it's slowing down because, honestly, Universal has no new releases to show for this year.

Ding Ding Ding!

[mystiksuicide]

One can only hope, I would love to have "Heroes" on blu.

[Esox50]

Originally Posted by dialog_gvf

Didn't they say 100 titles this year, mostly Q4? They are at 44 at the end of this month. So, there is a heck of a lode to drop, or they've scaled back.

Or there's "production problems".

Or there's "replication issues".

Or they were full of sh!t.

OR ALL OF THE ABOVE!!!

[Moretonbay]

Originally Posted by tvine2000

i was gonna say the same thing,well said.
yeh folks need to calm down
every hd forum i go to its like the soaps on tv.
lets stop the bashing and talk about how great hdm is.
theses threads should be for asking and getting answers
if you want to bash go back to high school,because thats how old some people sound on this forum.
lets stop worrying about hd dvd and worry about what bd is gonna do.
this war is far from over.

There hasn't been any bashing-if you want to see bashing go to a HD forum - they are very childish. These forums are not just for asking questions-these forums are for giving information and for putting forth thought provoking info.
I'm also not sure which member you are referencing to calm down-no one on this thread has gotten upset or is ranting people are only putting forth their thoughts and opinoins.

[BigB88]

Meaningless, they will increase releases throughout the 4th QTR, this is a critical time period. I believe both Warner and Universal will be making big decisions based on the holiday results. The BDA, who has really done nothing since the Paramount fiasco better get lower priced players to market by early Nov or they are going to have a difficult time during the holiday season, no matter what content is released.

[phloyd]

Remaining releases to the end of the year (exclusives) are roughly 73 to 23.

Universal needs to release 20 more discs than announced (roughly) to make their promised 100 titles this year.

I would expect to see some more sh!tty catalogue releases from them before the year is out

[Manco]

All I know is Ken Graffeo has been very quiet lately.

[javabear]

I would love to buy some Universal blu-ray movies. Bring them on!

[TruBlu2]

When we find out, we will know. We can speculate all we want, not going to do much good. These studios don't care, they will just keep screwing with the consumer.

[WickyWoo]

Didn't they say 100 titles this year, mostly Q4? They are at 44 at the end of this month. So, there is a heck of a lode to drop, or they've scaled back.

I don't think they can even if they wanted to. HD DVD (or Blu for that matter in most stores) simply doesn't have the B&M shelf space to support that kind of volume

[Viiincent]

Originally Posted by Esox50

Thanks for doing that legwork. It is interesting. However, Penton Man has said Universal is not going neutral for a while. I think given what happened yesterday, people really need to listen to Penton Man.

I do think Universal could go neutral around this time in 2008 at the earliest. I do think a lot depends on what Warner Bros. does early next year.

I think given what happened yesterday, people really need to stop listening to what other people say lol..

[Blu As Hell]

I believe Universal going exclusive/neutral when I see an official press release and a Bourne Ultimatum Blu-ray on the store shelves.

[w_tanoto]

interestin post you got there.... i want "elizabeth". It seems that they are slowing down, while other studio has more releases

[richard lichtenfelt]

Very interesting. If that list is complete than they have slowed down tremendously to coincide with the biggest shopping months of the year. This is the opposite of what would be expected. It would seem to me that if they were really into hd-dvd then they would be ramping up the production of their classics throughout the next couple of months. If there is indeed merit to this than it could be because their focus is now far less defined.
Only time will tell, but I have enjoyed considering this.

[w_tanoto]

Originally Posted by richard lichtenfelt

Very interesting. If that list is complete than they have slowed down tremendously to coincide with the biggest shopping months of the year. This is the opposite of what would be expected. It would seem to me that if they were really into hd-dvd then they would be ramping up the production of their classics throughout the next couple of months. If their is indeed merit to this than it could be because their focus is now far less defined.
Only time will tell, but I have enjoyed considering this.

My hope is 18 October 2007, exactly 2 years after HD DVD exclusivity, the'll announce neutral. but don't get your hopes up