Sony CEO Damns Blu-ray With Faint Praise -- Again
CEO Howard Stringer says it's unclear which high-def disc format war will win.
By Swanni

Washington, D.C. (December 11, 2007) -- Sony's Howard Stringer is at it again.

The chief executive of Sony, the top supporter of the Blu-ray high-def DVD format, tells the Associated Press that he doesn't know whether Blu-ray or HD DVD will win the format war.

Stringer said he believes Blu-ray is winning, but suggested that his company's format fave is hardly running away with the race.

"We have momentum," he told the wire service this week. "But that's all we have at the moment."

Last month, Stringer said in a speech in New York that the battle between Blu-ray and HD DVD had become a "stalemate." (Blu-ray and HD DVD are rival formats competing for the new high-def disc audience.)

Saying it's a "difficult fight," Stringer even openly speculated what Sony would do if HD DVD prevailed. (Basically, stop including Blu-ray players in Play Station 3 game consoles.)

The comments ignited a storm of controversy at blogs and Internet message boards with some posters saying that Stringer seemed to be throwing in the towel.

The Sony chief seemed to try to make amends a few weeks later in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.

He told the publication that Blu-ray has the "scale" to eventually defeat HD DVD.

The Sony executive noted that four major studios, including Disney and Fox, are exclusively supporting Blu-ray over HD DVD. (Two majors are backing HD DVD exclusively; studios that back one format over another only release titles in that format.)

But now Stringer appears to have reversed course once again, saying all that Blu-ray has is "momentum."

Stringer's remarks are at odds with other Blu-ray backers such as executives at Panasonic who have said Blu-ray has already won.

His latest comments could fuel more speculation that Sony would be open to a single format negotiation with Toshiba, the leading supporter of HD DVD.

12/12/2007 | 06:33 AM ]

Warner Home Video said it has no intention to support Blu-ray exclusively and cease to release movies on HD DVD format. The comment comes as a denial to rumours spread by the members of Blu-ray camp which says that Warner would shortly proclaim exclusive support for Blu-ray disc.

“We have made no decision to change our present policy which is to produce in both HD DVD and Blu-ray,” said Jim Noonan, Warner Bros. senior vice president and general manager, reports Format War Central web-site.

Late last week an executive from Lionsgate studio said that, based on a rumour, Warner Home Video plans to switch to Blu-ray and abandon HD DVD format. Potentially, such move can provide Blu-ray approximately 70% of new releases, which is likely to force other backers of HD DVD to axe support of the format. But Warner Brothers, which is currently the only major studio to support both Blu-ray and HD DVD, was fast enough to deny possible switch to a single high-definition format.

“Our position hasn’t changed and certainly any comments that were published in the U.S. were not intended to suggest that we had changed our stance. We support both formats and we have not made any decision towards that policy and nor are any such announcements planned or in the pipeline. In terms of the short-term scenarios around the Q4 sales results, Warner Brothers are always reviewing our strategies and we can’t say what might happen in five or ten years, but for now, there’s been no decision made to change course,” said Warner Brothers Home Video Australia and New Zealand managing director Roger Clarke, reports Current.com.au web-site.

Currently Warner Home Video releases movies both on Blu-ray and HD DVD, thus, making them available to a wider audience of people. But a problem for Warner could be the fact that despite of the rise of sales via the Internet many people still get their digital video discs from retail stores. Since shelf space is limited in conventional “brick and mortar” stores and Warner is interested in offering the widest choice of movies possible, it may eventually make certain decisions that would limit the number of supported formats.

Still, since neither Blu-ray, nor HD DVD has become a de facto replacement for DVD due to high prices of players and discs, it is hardly logical for Warner to cut support of one format.