Warner Goes Blu-Ray Exclusive, biggest payoff yet

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Just days before CES 2008, Warner Home Video has announced that they
are going to stop supporting HD-DVD and support the Blu-Ray format
exclusively. There are rumors that this decision was made after Sony
paid Warner 1.8 billion dollars to sign an exclusive contract, one of
the largest payoffs yet (the second largest being 150 million to
Paramount and Dreamworks to go HD-DVD exclusively.)

Warner's official response, however, was:
"In response to consumer demand, Warner Bros. Entertainment will
release its high-definition DVD titles exclusively in the Blu-ray disc
format beginning later this year" it was announced today by Barry
Meyer, Chairman & CEO, Warner Bros. and Kevin Tsujihara, President,
Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group.

After August 2007, Sir Howard Stringer, CEO of Sony said that the Blu-
Ray format was in a stalemate. "It's a difficult fight. We were trying
to win on the merits, which we were doing for a while, until Paramount
changed sides," Howard Stringer told the AP.

Blu-Ray was winning the HD format war in North America and Asia, but
not Europe, until the Dreamworks/Paramount buyout.

Many consider this new Warner Home Video buyout to be the end of the
format war completely.