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Tuesday, August 21, 2007

The real blow of Paramount/Dreamworks announcement

Firstly i need to make a confession nearly shat my pants reading the press release. I couldn't believe it at first, I was like maybe it for certain titles only as Warners is then more and more article surfaced, and when AP, AFP and Reuters picked the stories, the announcement spread like wild wire on the cyber world with more than 50 pages (30 results per page) of google news search 3 hrs after the announcement. Reuters screamed, Paramount/Dreamworks drop Blu-ray support. I was like OMG OMG - today I received the key to my first house which was completed 2 months ago then this. I was like I am in heaven!!

How huge is the Para/DW announcement? It is the MOST HUGE :p news ever in the format war. It so huge Sony's PR Firm, GCI Group, a Los Angeles-based public relations firm, began calling reporters and news sites to tell them that a Hollywood news blog was reporting that HD DVD supporters gave Paramount $100 million in "promotional considerations" to dump Blu-ray. http://www.tvpredictions.com/bluraypay082007.htm
. BDA is sooo worry they are force to shell possible attacks to make a joint statement touting interactive and web features on BD that NO setup BD players can support with FOX and Disney. BDA also contacted websites telling them that FOX will remain BD exclusive when no one actually said that FOX is going neutral.

okay now on the real blow on BD on the announcement. This is more to BD losing support than HD DVD gaining support. Paramount's decision basically mock BDA, target, and other minor BD support announcement made within this few months. All the the announcement combined is not even half as big as the Paramount announcement. Personally i would rather see Disney and Liongate announcing support for HD DVD than Paramount/Dreamworks dropping support for BD because maybe were conned into getting BD because of studio support. Studio support is almost in EVERY BD purchasers reasoning for doing so. No own expected Paramount/Dreamworks announcement. It was shockingly out of the blue. Not even a word on that in the cyberworld. How how would this stale BD sales. Will in worsen the BD standalone player sales? I bet. How many will cancel their Sony and Samsung BD players pre-order?

The second blow: Assuming Paramount and Dreamworks release titles regularly. This will certainly help HD DVD closing the small movie sales gap. Blades of Glory, Transformers and Shrek alone earned Paramount USD1.5b. They are going to be huge when they are released. The announcement will DEFINITELY and seriously reduce the sales gap.

Third blow: the timing of the announcement, is this a prelude to HD DVD's marketing onslaught over BD? BBi did not exclusive BD support. So did Target. But Para/DW is after supporting BD for more than a year. they have the sales data. BBi had a date collected during the period where HD DVD had nearly no title releases and use it as the reason' to announcement support for BD. Para/DW had more than a year of data from the expensive BD player era till the sub$500 era and they decided to drop out of support for BD. This is after LG and Samsung whom also supported BD exclusively announced support for HD DVD.

pre Para/DW announcement: BD = 84.6%video content availability vs HD DVD's 41%. And the sales ration was stuck a 2-1 for nearly year.

post Para/DW announcement: BD 71.4% vs HD DVD's 41%.

These figures will surely affect the movie sales ratio of HD DVD vs BD.



what do you think the real blow and significant of the Paramount and dreamworks' exclusive HD DVD support?

from AVS Forum - HD DVD Players by xboxboi

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