• Most Popular
  • Most Shared

Paramount poised to drop HD DVD format support -FT

Tue Jan 8, 2008 2:05am EST

Stocks

   

TOKYO, Jan 8 (Reuters) - Paramount studios is poised to drop its support of the high-definition DVD (HD DVD) format after Warner Bros studio said it would back the competing Blu-ray format, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.

Stocks

The loss of support from Paramount, which is owned by Viacom Inc (VIAb.N), would likely deal the final blow to the HD DVD format backed by Toshiba Corp (6502.T) and put an end to the format war, the newspaper said on its Web site.

Time Warner Inc's (TWX.N) Warner Bros studio on Friday said it would exclusively release high-definition DVDs in Sony Corp's (6758.T) Blu-ray format, marking a major setback to the HD DVD camp. [ID:nN04446354]

Blu-ray discs outsold HD DVD by nearly two-to-one in the United States last year, but HD DVD had secured major allies in August when Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc said they would go exclusively with HD DVD.

But Paramount is understood to have a clause in its contract with the HD DVD camp that would allow it to change sides if Warner Bros backed Blu-ray, the Financial Times said, citing people familiar with the situation. (Reporting by Nathan Layne)

Stocks


More from Reuters

Photo

Democrats reach deal on health bill

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Democratic healthcare negotiators said they agreed on Tuesday to replace a government-run insurance option with a scaled-back non-profit plan and would seek cost estimates on the deal.

» More Top News
File photo of snow covered Uhuru peak of the largest free-standing volcano in the world, Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, taken on March 10, 2006. REUTERS/Neil Wallace
Postcards to Copenhagen:

Wish we weren't here

Mount Kilimanjaro's melting snow cap is one of many things forever altered by climate change. Here's a snapshot of a world dealing with environmental destruction.   Full Article 

Climate conference
People prepare to lower the body of one of the ministers killed in a blast from a suicide bomber last Thursday at Shamo Hotel in Somali's capital Mogadishu December 4, 2009. REUTERS/Feisal Omar
witness:

Scenes of a "slaughterhouse"

War is just about the only story to tell in Somalia. But when one reporter tried to cover an event reflecting positive change, violence reared its ugly head again.  Full Article 

World