Rumor: Warner Paid $500 Million To Go Blu-Ray
By William on Saturday, January 5th, 2008 at 6:05 PM PST In Gamer Life, Sony
According to rumor reports from campaignhd.com, Warner and Fox were all set to exclusively use HD-DVD until they were paid over $500 million by BDA to dump the HD-DVD format. This is a rumor that’s hard to believe, but it’s not entirely out of this world.
There’s really not much substance to the claim, but here’s the quote:
“According to a trusted source that was close to the negotiations, Warner and FOX were working on a deal to go Exclusive to HD DVD as recent as last week. Our source tells us that Warner was only willing to go to HD DVD if FOX would go with them. Their thinking was if they just went to HD DVD by themselves, it would not end the format war. Early this week FOX was paid an undisclosed amount to remain exclusive to Blu-ray. With the FOX deal falling through, Warner had no choice but to accept the BDA’s $500 Million offer to go Blu-ray exclusive. We do wonder if FOX was just playing the HD DVD side, while having no intentions of ever switching.”
Via N4G
If true, this would certainly make the deal a little on the shady side, but in no way out of the norm when it comes to big business. Politicians are bought off every day by lobbyists and the same thing happens in the business sectors. Earlier reports had indicated that HD-DVD was trying to buy Warner and Fox off. It’s unfortunate for them that the reported buy off amounts were much lower than BDA supposedly ponied up. We have no idea how much truth there is behind these reports, but they seem logical.
This sounds like total nonsense. The reason they went with BluRay is the reason they gave. They had to make a choice because so much of the market was waiting for a clear winner and that wasn’t going to come unless they made a move. If they had gone HD-DVD exclusive the market would have been split pretty much 50/50 which would have kept the stalemate going.
Bluray was already looking like the obvious better choice to the worldwide consumer and retailer. Worldwide there are more standalone players in homes and the players make more money for the retailers. An electronics retailer makes about 35% on each item sold which means a $450 BluRay player nets them about $150 profit. To get the same profit from the $100 HD-DVD players we kept hearing about a retailer would have to sell 5 of them which involves 5 times more effort, 5 times more shipment costs and 5 times more storage space being used up. That would be OK if they were actually selling loads more of them than BluRay standalones but they arent. The most recent figures put HD-DVD player sales at about 750k compared to about 700k for BluRay so retailers have made far more money from BluRay and they would have mader their choice clear to Warner which would have made their decision even easier.
Norbit is full of shit
From the minute it was announced, fanboy boards were wild with rumours of $200/$450/$500 million pay-offs. Warner started making a lot of noise months ago about supporting Blu Ray, and said very little about HD DVD, the writing certainly seemed to be on the wall. So, they’ve now said there was no payoff, probably true. But if not, so what? Barring a miracle, HD DVD is effectively DOA, and we can move on with a single format. There’s far too many people emotionally invested in what are effectively circuit boards and bits of plastic – let ‘em whine and spread their rumours. Blu Ray has won. The rest, as the saying goes, is history.
HD-DVD was still-born, and Warner just buried it. There was no payoff — Warner spokespeople have already said so. Switching to Blu-ray just made good business sense because it’s the best and most profitable next-gen disc technology.
The end, kiddos.
This does sound like nonsense. Norbit is right, it was no surprise, Warner spoke of going Blu-ray exclusive a couple months ago. It was all the consumers and most decided to buy the Blu-ray movies. A large studio company isnt going to choose HD-DVD that doesnt sell, instead they will choose the format that consumers buy so newer consumers to HD arent confused on what to buy anymore. BDA isn’t stupid enough to pay $500million to Warner to go blu-ray exclusive especially since Warner is making more money on their movies from Blu-ray discs already, theres no logic in that.
It should be simple for these studios. Both formats offer sharp resolution, but Blu-ray gives alot more storage space and actually gives security from piracy, which all studios should want.
I would probably delte this article, wont make HD-DVD fan boys feel any better.
Um, highdefdigest.com confirmed that the rumor is patently false. The WB didn’t get a dime from the BDA.
Hey here’s a thought: Who cares? Most people will be watching HD content through on-demand or digital download anyway. The time of popping in a disk and buying a new player is over. I know I won’t be shelling out 300$ for a player and then paying 25$ just for a movie. Not when I can press a few buttons on my remote or console controller.
i have seen that warner have blatantly denied this rumour,
even if they had been paid a ‘bribe’ i wouldn’t have cared, just so long as the format war was ended by it.
1. when shown on the side bar, it shows $0 million
2. Who cares even if they were paid off? They have the right to do whatever they want. They could abandon all formats and go back to using beta.. Of course that would be blatantly stupid, but they have the right to.
3. I think it’s a good thing that it was reported that the switch was made, but I have to agree with Tim. I’m not buying any more players.
Both format were still born. Until now, both formats were complete losers.
I hope WB DID get money for this, otherwise they are idiots. I’m betting they did get paid. They’d have to be fools not to leverage this format war to their advantage and leave money on the table. Anyone arguing that going blu-ray was done simply because it “was best for consumers and retailers” needs to wake up.
Its meaningless whether or not they were bought off, just like it was meaningless with Paramount, but having said that, they made a colossal fuckup if they went exclusive without getting paid. I’m sure some money changed hands. It only makes sense.
used_c I agree. Money had to have changed hands at some point. I have no clue how much money or who.. but these deals are always about money in the end.
Not true!
http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/Warner/Warner:_No_Payoff_for_Move_to_Blu-ray/1327
Warner Home Entertainment President Kevin Tsujihara says the studio took no pay-offs to exclusively back Blu-ray.
In a post-announcement conference call, Tsujihara flatly denied rumors that studio had accepted anywhere from 250M to $500M in exchange for dropping its HD DVD format support.
According to the exec, Warner’s sole motivation in dropping its HD DVD format support was to ensure growth of the “category” and the long-term health of the industry.
Warren Grove, of course Warners going to deny it. Paramount denied it until it was proven. Once somebody finds the evidence, the Warner President will just say it wasn’t a “payoff”, but a “promotional fee” or something.
Of course Warner were paid off… they have to break a contract stating they’d keep making HD-DVD’s in to next year. The payoff would have been an amount to at least cover the price of breaking that contract…
IMO there’s no reason to deny it, so what if you were bought off? it’s a free god damn country.
Stop buying DVD. It’s the past. Digital download FTW!!!!!!
@ weclock, yes it is a free country but it could lead to issues if more companies are bought out and cause some monopoly or collusion problems.
Anymore new rumors?