Big U.S. retailer drops HD DVD, Universal still with HD DVD
Category: Industry, Posted: 01/23/2008 at 04:18PM CST by Billy Wang, Previews Editor
"Major" U.S. electronics retailer Grant's Appliances announced they've begun dropping support for HD DVD and are all set to promote Blu-ray exclusively. Grant's joins other retail chains such as Target, Blockbuster and BJ's Wholesale, to support Blu-ray exclusively.
The Blu-ray/HD DVD war was kicked into high gear recently when Warner Bros. announced that come June, the studio is going to support Blu-ray exclusively. Warner Bros. joins other companies such as Sony Pictures, MGM, 20th Century Fox and Lionsgate to continue supporting Blu-Ray.
But HD DVD isn't dead; Toshiba's consumer products of America president, Akiyo Ozaka, said the following about Warner Bros' decision, "We were very disappointed with Warner Brothers' announcement. Sales of HD DVD were very good last year, especially in October to December." Companies like Paramount, which include others like Nickelodeon, MTV Films and DreamWorks, remain HD DVD supporters.
Two weeks ago, we reported that Universal's contract to support HD DVD had expired but follow-up comments from Universal Studios' executive vice president Ken Graffeo note the company's continued pledge to support the format. BetaNews notes:
"This is business as usual for us and there are no plans to make any changes. We just made an announcement of our new HD DVD titles yesterday, with American Gangster. We also have a lot of other things planned. It's business as usual."
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10 stores across 2 states? No wonder I've never heard of Grant's. It's funny how they're considered major.
Universal should just admit that they're going multi-format and be done with it. The fact that they haven't renewed their exclusivity contract. The fact is that HD-DVD cannot possibly stand up to Blu-Ray without movies from Warner Bros., Fox, MGM AND Disney.
Well, this isn't surprising since Universal VP Ken Graffeo is also the co-chairman of the HD DVD Promotion Group. I can't be sure of the exact reason Universal and Paramount are staying behind, but money has to be involved somehow. It almost always is.
Target is Bluray exclusive? I was there this past weekend and they still had HDDVDs.
Corvall - They probably need to clear out their stock.