As each side in this format war has spent the year positioning themselves to deliver a knockout blow and claim the title of Successor to DVD for themselves, every comparison between the two has been followed by a loud (and usually at least partly justified) declaration from the other that the numbers are biased and misleading. Among common complaints are counting game consoles as Blu-ray standalones and free (as in Buy one, Get one) titles as sales.
Ken Graffeo, Universal executive VP of marketing and co-president of the North American HD DVD Promotional Group said “I think the fourth quarter is going to be interesting,” said Graffeo. “If you break out the hits, I think we will be even. But the aggressive discounting, with catalog [of buy one, get one free offers], can inflate the numbers.”
“This is a real testament to the momentum we are gaining with the set-top players,” said Graffeo. “We are beginning to realize the attach rate with movie sales.”
Of course, as with all comparisons between HD DVD and Blu-ray this will no doubt get equal spin from both sides until the only clear fact that remains is we still don't have a dominant HD disc format yet.
Source: Video Business
Written by: Rich Fiscus @ 21 Dec 2007 17:56
