At This Exact Moment, Uni is HD DVD Exclu

Uni's Ken Graffeo took some time today to try to refute reports that the studio is changing its HD DVD exclusivity. One story from our sister publication, the usually pretty believable Variety, suggested that Uni was on the fence about staying exclusive and wasn't bound by any contracts to do so. That sounded like a different interpretation of the post-Warner strategy I heard from Graffeo just a few days ago. He had repeated a "no change" mantra at that time. Today, a forwarded email from Graffeo read, "Contrary to unsubstantiated rumors from unnamed sources, Universal's current plan is to continue to support the HD DVD format." To me, that's great. But it still was not totally, totally answering the question of whether they might also go Blu-ray, right? The statement seemed to open the door to at least go dual-format, which seems reasonable in light of retailers like Trans World already applauding a possible one-format BD world. But the word I got back from one of his reps is "No open doors. Still exclusive. As Ken said the other day - nothing's changed." OK! But I still get the feeling the Warner news and its industry aftermath is a completely fluid situation. But I'm sure Ken and the Uni team will have to start getting used to regular calls on what their thoughts are on high-def at any given moment. But my hats off to Uni for communicating something at least - Paramount is still keeping things really close to the vest.

Posted by Susanne Ault on January 10, 2008 | Comments (0)