Breaking News!! Warner is soon to be Blu-Ray Exclusive!

Warner Bros to back Blu-ray DVD format exclusively | Industries | Consumer Goods & Retail | Reuters

Re: Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Warner Bros. Entertainment to Release Its High-Definition DVD Titles Exclusively in the Blu-ray Disc Format Beginning Later This Year



Decision Made in Response to Strong Consumer Preference for Format

BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In response to consumer demand, Warner Bros. Entertainment will release its high-definition DVD titles exclusively in the Blu-ray disc format beginning later this year, it was announced today by Barry Meyer, Chairman & CEO, Warner Bros. and Kevin Tsujihara, President, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group.
“Warner Bros.’ move to exclusively release in the Blu-ray disc format is a strategic decision focused on the long term and the most direct way to give consumers what they want,” said Meyer. “The window of opportunity for high-definition DVD could be missed if format confusion continues to linger. We believe that exclusively distributing in Blu-ray will further the potential for mass market success and ultimately benefit retailers, producers, and most importantly, consumers.”
Warner Home Video will continue to release its titles in standard DVD format and Blu-ray. After a short window following their standard DVD and Blu-ray releases, all new titles will continue to be released in HD DVD until the end of May 2008.
“Warner Bros. has produced in both high-definition formats in an effort to provide consumer choice, foster mainstream adoption and drive down hardware prices,” said Jeff Bewkes, President and Chief Executive Officer, Time Warner Inc., the parent company of Warner Bros. Entertainment. “Today’s decision by Warner Bros. to distribute in a single format comes at the right time and is the best decision both for consumers and Time Warner.”
“A two-format landscape has led to consumer confusion and indifference toward high definition, which has kept the technology from reaching mass adoption and becoming the important revenue stream that it can be for the industry,” said Tsujihara. “Consumers have clearly chosen Blu-ray, and we believe that recognizing this preference is the right step in making this great home entertainment experience accessible to the widest possible audience. Warner Bros. has worked very closely with the Toshiba Corporation in promoting high definition media and we have enormous respect for their efforts. We look forward to working with them on other projects in the future.”

Re: Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Looks like the other shoe has officially dropped. Luckily, I received two new BR players this Christmas season.

I wonder how much money will Warner receive for this switch? I'll assume it's going to be more than what Paramount received from Toshiba.





Crawdaddy

Re: Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Warner made their decision (ie, knew what they wanted to do) even before they were offered a cash settlement. But naturally, being business-minded, they played both sides against each other to make the decision as comfortable as possible I'm sure.



Their goal was to pick the format with the best consumer support and long-term potential (blu-ray) while at the same time making out like bandits with the blank-checks the BDA and MS were waving in front of them. Naturally. But this is VERY different from Paramount which dumped the format that was selling BETTER and grabbed a contract-buy-out for 150 million without even thinking about how it would impact the larger context of the format war or consumer adoption of HD media.

What I'm wondering is how much Sony is paying to Toshiba in order to share royalties with them... There's been talk of peace-offerings to help ease the transition into a single-HD consumer format. Hopefully that means Toshiba won't be left high and dry when it comes to disc-based royalties.

If is wasn't for Toshiba pushing HD DVD, Blu-ray wouldn't even be a format worth owning (no advanced audio/video codecs).

Re: Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

You can basically say the format war is over now... at least in my opinion.

Let's see how much extra sales this will generate from all those fence-sitters we've been hearing so much about. I'm pretty sure the numbers will increase, but not by a lot... which will pretty much solidify this as a niche market.

OK, now Criterion... let's release some f'n titles already.
I'm still not jumping in until I get a decent list of titles instead of only being barraged by mostly Hollywood junk.

Re: Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

I knew this would happen when I went format-neutral . Happily, it was a Blu-ray player I was lacking and have only spend about $350 total (playerwise that is) for my neutrality.

Re: Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Terrific news. Amen on Criterion releasing some titles.

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I have no insider information on Universal but I note that they have been strangely quiet pre-CES...

Re: Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Jan 4 will now be known as Black Friday.

even though I've been making the argument over the last couple days 'why' I thought this was likely to happen- I'm not real happy about it.
I don't want to see anything happen that might cause Universal (and Paramount) to release less product in the future. I also hate to see Warner engendering ill will, which is what this move will do for a couple hundred thousand people who jumped on inexpensive HD DVD players recently.
Bewkes is being entirely dishonest when he says "now is the right time".The time to have done this was 2 months ago. Clearly they just wanted to make sure they were going to move an extra 40% of Harry Potter and Blade Runner, and Planet Earth HDMs over the last few weeks. Business decisions are fine and understandable, but don't compound the issue by being blatantly dishonest and patronizing about it.

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Sorry, but I think that's a load of crap. It's a decision strictly based on monetary gain.

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Needless to say, I am ecstatic over this news!

Re: Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

I am sure Warner, just like Paramount, made an unbiased commercial decision based solely on empirically verifiable data and consumer sentiment.

It had to happen one way or the other, being HD DVD exclusive myself, wish it had gone the other way but with BD players reaching sub $300, the cost of owning both formats in no longer prohibitive.

Just hate to see Sony win!

Let the Blu gloating begin...

Dave

Re: Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

If this is what they were planning why not announce right away? They should have announced it before Christmas! All this talk of being dual was BS. I think Warner should be ashamed for leading people on. I guess all the people who bought cheap HD players mean nothing to them.

And by the way I didn't buy any players yet, but if I did I would feel betrayed.

Re: Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

There was no deal before Christmas.

Re: Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

So abracadabra there is a deal just like that? What about all this about 'the format most likely to succeed' in the press release? If its a 'deal'. Then its probably mostly about money.

Re: Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Assuming this is the beginning of the end of the format war, Blu-ray still has their biggest battle ahead of them: DVD. How will studios push HD software over DVD with out giving it away. On a side note, I think the BOGOs will quickly fade away.

Re: Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

They better start by getting Fox to drop their 39.99 MRSP on all titles.

Re: Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

I can't comment any further, but can say that negotiations go back and forth until they end, like they did last night.

Re: Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

yeah. I would definitely agree with this. The people that wanted an end to the format war got their wish.
something to cheer about now isn't it

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I couldn't pull the trigger on the BOGO Die Hard Movies at Amazon ($27.99) too expensive. We have been spoiled!

Re: Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Warner Bros. Entertainment to Release its High-Definition DVD Titles Exclusively in the Blu-Ray Disc Format Beginning Later This Year

Re: Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

PLEASE do yourself a favor and buy the cheapy PS3 instead. Trust me on this, it's worth the extra hundie... =)

Re: Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Over the last month, I got into HD-DVD and Blu for less than 300.00. Still, I had been buying a lot more HD-DVD titles than Blu. I think it would have been the reverse if I knew this was coming. And a big part of me thinks I should have waited. I wonder how long Parmount's exclusive contract is for? Still haven't bought the Star Trek set. If Paramount is able to release in Blu-ray fairly soon, I just may wait to get my hi-def Trek. How long will Universal stay with HD-DVD?

The next year is going to be interesting.

Re: Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

Actually, the thought of not having to return countless scratched HD DVDs to Amazon has me elated at the moment.

Re: Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

So what was this 'deal' ? That's what I want to read in the press release.

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The particulars will probably leak out next week. I just hope the people that slammed Paramount for taking Toshiba money are fair in their comments about the monies Warner will be receiving this year and beyond.

Re: Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

This is great news. I think I need to sell my HD A3.

Re: Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

You couldn't pull the trigger on $14 (normally $40) titles?

I expect we'll continue to see sales just like we continue to see sales on DVD. They still need to get adoption up and now with one format truely becoming dominant that should be easier, but sales will still be key over the next couple years. And by that time, we'll have blu-ray bargain bins just like we have DVD bins.

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Not trying to sound like a wiseass here but if i don't play video games, why would i want a PS3 for the extra $100?

Re: Warner Brothers is now Blu-ray Exclusive

David, you have no idea how all this went down.

Some of us do......really.

This deal was made over the past few days/hours and there are
many specifics you may never be privy to.

So please don't make misleading statements like this that
are not true.

In the meantime, it looks like the format war is over. Congrats to Blu-ray!