Porn could be HD DVD's saviour
I've posted before about how the Sony-backed Blu-Ray format was kicking the butt of the Toshiba-supported HD DVD format in the next-generation DVD war, but perhaps it really is too premature to pick a winner.
Blu-Ray has a lot going for it, including a better roster of sponsors and a built-in install base with the Playstation 3 video game console. Video chain Blockbuster is also vouching for it, as are Target stores in the United States. And as simplistic as it seems, Blu-Ray also has a much better name than its rival, which makes for better marketing. What's most telling about how the war is going, however, is simple presence on store shelves. I walked into a Best Buy last week and was immediately confronted with a wall of Blu-Ray movies. The HD DVD titles were furtively hidden around the corner. Blu-Ray titles also outnumbered HD DVD releases by about two to one. The ratio is even worse in my local (non-Blockbuster) video store, which stocks only a handful of HD DVD films but a healthy contingent of Blu-Ray.
The x-factor in this battle, however, is porn. As numerous media outlets are pointing out, VHS won the battle over Betamax because the porn industry chose it. Sony has thus far resisted allowing porn on Blu-Ray, ceding the key U.S. market to HD DVD. That could be a very costly mistake. I've said in previous posts that the HD DVD camp was fighting what looks like a very half-hearted war, but perhaps they're actually fighting it far smarter than is immediately apparent.
Source: National Post
I've posted before about how the Sony-backed Blu-Ray format was kicking the butt of the Toshiba-supported HD DVD format in the next-generation DVD war, but perhaps it really is too premature to pick a winner.
Blu-Ray has a lot going for it, including a better roster of sponsors and a built-in install base with the Playstation 3 video game console. Video chain Blockbuster is also vouching for it, as are Target stores in the United States. And as simplistic as it seems, Blu-Ray also has a much better name than its rival, which makes for better marketing. What's most telling about how the war is going, however, is simple presence on store shelves. I walked into a Best Buy last week and was immediately confronted with a wall of Blu-Ray movies. The HD DVD titles were furtively hidden around the corner. Blu-Ray titles also outnumbered HD DVD releases by about two to one. The ratio is even worse in my local (non-Blockbuster) video store, which stocks only a handful of HD DVD films but a healthy contingent of Blu-Ray.
The x-factor in this battle, however, is porn. As numerous media outlets are pointing out, VHS won the battle over Betamax because the porn industry chose it. Sony has thus far resisted allowing porn on Blu-Ray, ceding the key U.S. market to HD DVD. That could be a very costly mistake. I've said in previous posts that the HD DVD camp was fighting what looks like a very half-hearted war, but perhaps they're actually fighting it far smarter than is immediately apparent.
Source: National Post