Blockbuster to offer ONLY Blue-ray DVDs

[Ervin Farkas]

Blockbuster will announce today, Monday, June 18 2007 that it will only carry Blue-ray discs when it expands the operation beyond the initial 250 stores used for a few months in a test program.

Washington, D.C. (June 17, 2007) -- Video rental giant Blockbuster will only rent HDTV DVDs in the Blu-ray format in 1,450 stores next month when it expands its high-def service. That's according to an exclusive report today from the Associated Press. The retailer has tested both formats in approximately 250 stores for the last several months. But Blockbuster officials say 70 percent of the high-def rentals are Blu-ray. (http://www.tvpredictions.com/blockbuster061707.htm also cited on http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=257).

What do you guys think? Is this an important decision that could possibly end "THE WAR"?

[Mark Kenfield]

It certainly helps Blu-Ray's cause, but having spent the last semester studying it, I get the impression that the format the porn industry goes with will be the eventual winner.

From what I've been told, porn was the reason VHS won out over Betamax way back when, and it may well be the same for HD movies.

[Mike Tesh]

Yeah but I've heard good argument against that. The case being that porn is available on the internet these days whereas back then the only real easy way to watch it privately was on VHS. Plus there thousands of titles on VHS and DVD still around.

So that may not be the deciding factor as much as one might think based on the past. Things have definitely changed.

Personally I don't care who "wins" I would just like there to be one format.
But I get this feeling that by the time "the war" is over, there will be a better format/method around.

[Mark Bournes]

Yeah, they'll be issuing movies on small "cards" that you'll plug into your HDTV. No more "players"

Maybe I'm onto something. I'd better hurry and patent the idea.

[Dave Lammey]

If this is true, I don't understand why they would do this. How does it benefit Blockbuster to limit their rentals to blu-ray only? Don't they want the 30% who rent HD DVD?

Perhaps this is an encryption issue, or Sony's paying Blockbuster?

That said, I don't think it will have a huge impact -- how many people actually go to Blockbuster to rent? Compared to Netflix and the people who rent online from Blockbuster, I'd guess that the number who rent from an actual Blockbuster store is small.

[Steven Davis]

Originally Posted by Dave Lammey

If this is true, I don't understand why they would do this. How does it benefit Blockbuster to limit their rentals to blu-ray only? Don't they want the 30% who rent HD DVD?

Since Netflix and such have beaten on Blockbuster for the past couple of years, I would imagine that this decision is benefiting Blockbuster financially. Sortof like Apple only offering thier new Iphone to ATT/Cingular. There's kickbacks happening somewhere.

[James Klatt]

All the Blockbusters near me have closed down and moved out over the last 3 years.

[Mark Kenfield]

Originally Posted by Dave Lammey

If this is true, I don't understand why they would do this. How does it benefit Blockbuster to limit their rentals to blu-ray only? Don't they want the 30% who rent HD DVD?

Because it's easier and saves them money to stick with one format. If they stock both formats, customers are going to expect (and rightly so) to be able to pick up all new-release titles in either format. So that means Blockbuster would have to stock hd-dvd versions of all their new films for that 30%, which limits the amount they can spend on the dominant blu-ray titles and therefore the revenue they can make as a result.

Personally, I'm waiting for someone to bring out an affordable HD player with a universal laser that will handle both formats - whoever does that stands to make a great deal of money. And if dual-format players become the norm, the format war may well end in a draw.

[Boyd Ostroff]

http://mediabiz.blogs.cnnmoney.com/2...d-format-wars/

Martin also points out that NBC Universal, the media company that is majority owned by GE, is exclusively backing the HD DVD format. Considering that NBC Universal owns thousands of movie and TV titles from the NBC TV and Universal Studios movie libraries, it can probably keep HD DVD alive as long as it continues to shun Blu-Ray.

“NBC Universal needs to switch sides and support Blu-Ray since it is solely supporting HD DVD. If and when that happens, the format war is over,” Martin said.

[Kevin Shaw]

Originally Posted by Ervin Farkas

What do you guys think? Is this an important decision that could possibly end "THE WAR"?

It's a significant blow for HD-DVD, but probably doesn't indicate an end to the war yet. In other news, the BBC series "Planet Earth" is apparently selling better in HD-DVD format than Blu-ray on Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers...271499-1568012

I'm rooting for Blu-ray myself, but I mainly just want to see one format take over so I can recommend it to customers.

[Paulo Teixeira]

Originally Posted by Kevin Shaw

It's a significant blow for HD-DVD, but probably doesn't indicate an end to the war yet. In other news, the BBC series "Planet Earth" is apparently selling better in HD-DVD format than Blu-ray on Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers...271499-1568012

I'm rooting for Blu-ray myself, but I mainly just want to see one format take over so I can recommend it to customers.

I was thinking about that since it was released and it could be an indication that HD DVD’s audience is a little bit older than Blu-Ray’s because the majority of their audiences are young Adults who own a PS3.

[Tim Brown]

But there has been much speculation about whether the customers knew what they were buying when they purchased the HD-DVD version of Planet Earth. It has been said on Amazon's message boards that many believed they were purchasing a "high-definition" version that would play on their current DVD player and not necessarily an HD-DVD. With all the confusion in the marketplace with hi-def in general, this seems entirely plausible.

[Paulo Teixeira]

Because of this announcement, I bet NetFlix had an unexpected boost today.

http://dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.ph...317#post698317
Now that would be huge if Amazon were to ever do the same thing.

[Boyd Ostroff]

Netflix (NFLX) is up 1.57% today, Blockbuster (BBI) is up 0.44% so not too earth-shattering. But according to the story in my link above, Blockbuster will continue offering HD DVD rentals through its online service so that doesn't seem like much of a win for Netflix...

http://mediabiz.blogs.cnnmoney.com/2...d-format-wars/

Blockbuster said it will continue to offer Blu-Ray and HD DVD titles through its online rental store, which has lately made life a lot tougher for top rival Netflix (NFLX).

I don't own either of these stocks (and don't want to :-) and I'm not a customer of either company. But during the past year it looks like Blockbuster is indeed giving Netflix a run for their money...

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=BBI&...z=m&q=l&c=nflx

[Paul Cascio]

Originally Posted by Steven Davis

Since Netflix and such have beaten on Blockbuster for the past couple of years, I would imagine that this decision is benefiting Blockbuster financially. Sortof like Apple only offering thier new Iphone to ATT/Cingular. There's kickbacks happening somewhere.

I believe it would be a clear antitrust violation to try to prevent competitive products from the market. This would not be the case if BB acted alone in its decision.