DVD biz hammered by high-def headaches
Format talks fall apart
Reports out of Japan last week indicated that talks to reach a compromise between the competing high-def DVD formats -- Toshiba's HD DVD and Sony's Blu-Ray -- have fallen apart.
And the HD DVD camp, which was looking to stake its position in the marketplace this holiday season, is being hit by delays in its production pipeline.
In high-profile press events at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, Warner Bros. and sister companies New Line and HBO announced that at least 54 titles would be released on Toshiba's HD DVD format in time for the 2005 holidays. Paramount announced 20 titles and Universal announced 16.
But Paramount now says it won't be able to follow through on its HD releases due to delays by Toshiba in getting HD DVD players to market. Universal insisted earlier this month that it would stick to its plan, but is now beginning to show signs of cracking.
WB homevid chief Jim Cardwell says his studio is still waiting to get clarity from Toshiba about its plans for HD DVD players, but is now rephrasing its commitment to note that it will release the announced titles as soon as players are made available.
These embarrassing delays and unfulfilled promises come at the worst possible time for the HD DVD camp, as Fox and Lions Gate both recently joined Sony and Disney in the Blu-ray camp.
Blu-Ray is looking to launch by the middle of next year, and has the biggest consumer device along to support it: Sony's PlayStation 3.
Any hopes for unifying the formats will have to deal with the launch of that vidgame console, since integrating a unified format would likely be a major endeavor and delaying its launch would be costly for Sony.
If the market has to work out which format succeeds, it could delay consumer adoption by at least a year or two.
