No sooner did I mention Fox yesterday and their undecided stance on high definition formats, as the studio announced a slew of new titles. Clearly it was in response to Paramount's announcement to go HD-DVD exclusively from here on in so it remains to be seen if there's real product behind the announcement. After all Fox has announced various Blu-Ray titles before and the unceremoniously pulled from release schedules. Here's hoping, though, that this time it's for real and that the studio will really come through for a change. Regarding Paramount's announcement yesterday, while I was writing my commentary I couldn't help but think that this whole 'market analysis' was hogwash and that the real reason behind the move must be something else and it appears as if my instinct was right once again. During the day yesterday various rumors surfaced that the HD-DVD group actually paid Paramount a handsomely $150 million for the exclusive access to their films. Now, that makes sense. And no, there is nothing illegal about it. Exclusive deals have been done since the dawn of merchands. I can also see Paramount jumping at the bait, of course, because they have to sell a lot of high definition product in order to make that kind of profit, given the current weak high definition market penetration and sales overall. Let's face it, after all this whole deal is about 'Transformers' and 'Shrek' not making it to Blu-Ray. The HD-DVD camp is convinced that these two blockbusters will make a big impact, especially during the Holiday season for which they are undoubtedly scheduled, and frankly, they could be right. Setting up a deal with Paramount to secure these titles exclusively for their format makes sense - in fact, one has to begin to wonder why the Blu-Ray Disc Association wasn't smart enough to make a similar move? But well, that harks back to marketing and as we know marketing is the one thing the Blu-Ray camp has never gotten right. So, no matter which side of the fence you're on, Christmas will be very interesting this year. For me personally it makes no difference because I own and love both formats and maybe with strategic moves like this coming down the pipe, maybe more people should begin considering to simply peruse both formats and give the format war a kick in the behind.
