Jason_Wall
[H] Consumer Managing Editor
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2005
- Messages
- 2,138
As we state in the article, roughly half of the folks that own HDTVs actually view HD content. Part of this is because of the high cost and disarray of the film industry when it comes to deciding on a format for retail disc sales. Some studios have taken sides - others have hedged their bets and offer titles in both formats. Competing technologies rarely co-exist for long, but it's been known to happen. Are we looking at a long war of attrition and small gains, or a decisive point where one camp will throw in the towel?
Thanks for reading!
Simply put, we think that the smart studios are the ones that are hedging their bets and providing both formats. Why alienate part of your potential customer base and/or make it more complicated to get back into the game if one format does indeed rise to overwhelming dominance? Because of the decline over the past decade or so in movie theater attendance, studios are finding that their bread is becoming more heavily buttered by disc sales. True, it's more expensive in the short term to produce both formats, but at least they're covering their bases. We can understand that. Of course, by the same token, if no one chooses sides, who's to say that this format conflict will ever come to a resolution?
Thanks for reading!