By James Wells in Las Vegas
LAS VEGAS: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment worldwide president, Mike Dunn, has put the first nail into the coffin of HD DVD by claiming that Blu-ray Disc (BD) will outsell HD DVD by a 3.5 to 1 ratio in the first quarter of this year.
In a speech at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week, Dunn emphasised his “unwavering commitment to the Blu-ray disc format – the only high definition packaged media supported by the movie, music, gaming and computing industries."
Dunn said he plans to release an average of 5 to 10 titles per month, from Fox and MGM, which will be released when the corresponding titles go to DVD whenever possible.
Fox is also one of the first studios to release titles with BD-Java interactivity, as well as one of the first to release content on dual layer 50GB discs.
“We are looking forward to this pivotal year and the ultimate establishment of Blu-ray as the high-definition packaged media standard. In fact, Blu-ray sales performance surpassed HD-DVD for the first time the week of December 24 and did so by an impressive 20 per cent," said Fox worldwide president, Mike Dunn.
"What’s more, by the end of the first quarter our research shows the sales gap widening to Blu-ray, outselling HD DVD by a 3.5-to-1 ratio.
“We remain extremely encouraged by the growth in sales and player penetration and are fully committed to creating the most compelling products possible and to the continued pioneering development of BD with our partners.”
At this year’s CES, Sony Pictures and Warner Bros said they will launch 100 BD titles each this year, while Lionsgate Entertainment said it would offer between 40 and 50.