The New York Times is reporting that Warner Brothers, the last of the big studios not to have decided, is going with Sony's Blu-ray format.
Which could be the end for HD DVD unless it comes up with something good - a reversal by a Blu-ray studio, say, or Warners letting it in the side - in the next couple of months.
But as the story notes,
"The overwhelming industry opinion is that this decides the format battle in favor of Blu-ray," said Richard Doherty, research director at the Envisioneering Group, a market research firm in Seaford, N.Y.
HD DVD is still breathing. NYT:
Two major studios, Paramount Pictures and Universal Pictures, have deals in place to continue releasing their movies exclusively on HD DVD, as does DreamWorks Animation. Warner Brothers, part of Time Warner, will also continue to release its titles on both formats until the end of May.
But by supporting Blu-ray, Warner Brothers, the largest player in the $42 billion global home entertainment market, makes it next to impossible for HD DVD to recover the early momentum it achieved.
The reason this makes such a difference to this format war is that Warner is so big in film. This now gives Blu-ray about 70% of the market - Walt Disney, 20th Century Fox, MGM, Lionsgate and Warner and, uh, Sony are all on the Blu-ray side. Warner Brothers has some of the bigger releases in 2008, including "Speed Racer," the Batman sequel "The Dark Knight" and the sixth Harry Potter instalment.
"This doesn't necessarily kill the HD DVD format, but it definitely deals it a severe blow," said Paul Erickson, an analyst at the NPD Group's DisplaySearch. "When a consumer asks a store clerk which format to buy, that clerk is now going to have a hard time arguing for HD DVD."
Just a reminder of what we suggested way back in March 2007:
Is the PlayStation 3 a Trojan horse to help sell Blu-ray films?
Now the only question is: will anyone buy the discs, which are more expensive and (so far) can't be easily ripped in the way that DVDs can to more transportable formats?
