Filmstalker: Paramount to drop HD-DVD?

Surprising news, although perhaps not that much considering the announcement from Warner Bros. of their swift move to Blu-ray, Paramount looks set to drop HD-DVD and announce their full support for Blu-ray.

If this does happen it's looking more and more likely that Blu-ray is going to become the outright high definition DVD format.

According to the Financial Times, and there's a seriously reliable source for you, Paramount are set to drop their HD-DVD support, something that was announced just last summer, all because they are believed to have a clause in their contract with the HD-DVD consortium that allows them to move to Blu-ray if Warner Bros. does.

It's not known if DreamWorks also has this clause in their contract. DreamWorks have a close relationship with Paramount who distributes their films, and they signed their deals at the same time.

If it does turn out to be true then this could be another huge blow for HD-DVD. The Warner Bros. move already means that Blu-ray carries around 70% of Hollywood output according to the report, and that's a huge amount.

We'll have to wait to see if this is actually happening, but already if it does, it's another serious strike for the HD-DVD group.

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Paramount have already denied this story (see below), although they haven't announced any new titles at CES.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=aQMGgh2LV_bU&refer=japan

"Paramount Denies Report It Will Drop Toshiba's HD DVD (Update2)

By Andy Fixmer and John Liu

Jan. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures denied a newspaper report that the studio is poised to follow Time Warner Inc. in abandoning Toshiba Corp.'s HD DVD technology.

``Paramount's current plan is to continue to support the HD DVD format,'' Brenda Ciccone, a spokeswoman for Paramount, said in an e-mail today.

Toshiba, the leading promoter of the HD DVD format for high- definition video discs, fell in Tokyo trading after the Financial Times reported Paramount is poised to adopt Sony Corp.'s Blu-ray format instead.

Paramount can defect because a clause in its contract with the HD DVD camp allows the studio to switch to Blu-ray if Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. dropped its support of Toshiba's standard, the newspaper reported today, citing unidentified people familiar with the plan. Warner Bros. said on Jan. 4 it would drop its support of HD DVD.

Keisuke Ohmori, a spokesman for Tokyo-based Toshiba, said the report is speculative. Masayo Endo, a spokeswoman for Sony, declined to comment on the report.

Toshiba's shares fell 0.1 percent to close at 782 yen on the Tokyo Stock Exchange after dropping as much as 1.3 percent. Sony's stock rose 3.4 percent."

Posted by: Ian Smith | January 8, 2008 1:55 PM

A stall because some Director at Paramount hadn't bought his Sony shares yet, perhaps? ;)

Posted by: _ram-jaane | January 8, 2008 4:51 PM