Why are Universal the only major studio not releasing on BD? (1 Viewer)

[Rob_Walton]

Can anyone explain why Universal are the only studio tied firmly to the HD DVD format? Is there some financial deal with Toshiba, or corporate links with MS that most of us don't know about?

 

[ppltd]

Probably for the same reasons some studios are exclusive to BR. Hope this all changes soon.

Thomas Eisenmann

 

[Sanjay Gupta]

Did'nt Toshiba have some kind of ownership stake in Universal at some point? Although I am not too sure, but I think they did and that may have something to do with this. Also, I think Toshiba has had a product placement deal with Universal for a long time, again, this may have something to do with Universal's loyalty towards HD-DVD.

 

[MatthewA]

No, it was Matsushita (owner of JVC) who bought Universal's parent company, MCA, in 1990. They then sold it to Seagram's of Canada who sold it to Vivendi of France who sold it to GE of the USA. So Universal has been through five owners in four countries in just 16 years.

 

[Joseph Bolus]

I think it's mainly just due to the fact that Universal was a member of the "DVD Forum" which sanctioned HD-DVD as the "official" HD successor to the DVD format.

Since Blu-ray never formally submitted their format for review to the committee it doesn't officially exist as far as Universal is concerned.

 

[Rob_Walton]

And yet other studios are also members of the DVD forum, and have since joined the Blu-ray Disc Aliance. I'm half remembering that there's some Universal connection to Microsoft through the MSNBC company. Does anyone know anything about that?

 

[nolesrule]

Besides the fact that NBC and Universal have the same parent company?

 

[Jon_W]

I thought Universal lost a lot of money supporting Sony's UMD format and did not want to join another Sony venture.

 

[Rachael B]

Yes! I think it goes beyond that. Universal geared up and followed Sony into SACD land only to have Sony promptly turn back. I think Universal doesn't trust Sony's leadership. Their own C.E.O.'s comments a couple months ago suggested such.

Another angle, speculative, is that maybe some companies, like Universal & Warner favour HD-DVD because they believe it'll be cheaper to distribute in the long run, very possibly??? Then, you have the other group of studios, which I presume, have bought into Sony's promise of better kopy-poofing via BD+. I really wonder if all this BD+ jazz is why Blu costs more?

 

[Jeff(R)]

One year ago, when the news first started circulating about Paramount and Warner supporting Blu-ray, articles also stated that Universal was expected to announce support for Blu-ray shortly.

Of course, that never happened. Just a guess: being the last remaining major studio hold out, the BDA would have been less likely to make any concessions to them during negotiations. Spurned, they remain a very important large fish to a smaller group (HD DVD). Given that all major studio exclusivity defections during the last year have gone Blu-ray's way and not toward HD DVD, there are no doubt pressures being applied to Universal to stay where they are at to prevent Blu-ray from obtaining 100% major studio support.

Jeff

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