When it comes to video format wars, traditionally there has been a winner and a loser. But, if a new report issued by UK-based analyst firm Screen Digest is to be believed, the conflict raging between Toshiba's HD-DVD and Sony's Blu-ray high-definition video players may end in a stalemate.
Despite Blu-ray disks currently outselling HD-DVDs at a rate of two-to-one, Screen Digest's research indicates that film studios will potentially miss out on $280 million in revenue for 2008. "Blu-ray-exclusive studios Sony, Fox and Disney could miss out on $175m in consumer spending by not publishing their films on HD DVD, although Blu-ray's stronger sales mean that HD-DVD-only supporters are at risk of making the largest individual losses."
Rather than viewing Paramount's recent HD-DVD alignment as an obvious flaw in its argument, Screen Digest thinks the move will have the opposite effect on other studios. "The decision has effectively secured HD-DVD's immediate future, and cleared the way for the other studios that currently support one platform only to move to an agnostic position without being the studio solely responsible for prolonging a format war, or for killing off one of the formats."
Screen Digest concludes that many format-exclusive studios will rethink their strategies in 2008 and come to the conclusion that cashing in on lost sales trumps fueling the platform war. "We believe that eventually most will decide to offer their titles on both HD-DVD and BD in order to maximize their returns," the report concludes.
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gen_x
21/09/2007 08:45 AM
*sigh* Why can't we all get along?
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steve_666
28/11/2007 05:29 PM
its all about the money
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