Best Buy and NetFlix Prefer Blu-ray Format
What a blow to Toshiba's HD-DVD format, Best Buy and NetFlix have announced that they prefer the Blu-ray high-definition disc format. Best Buy says they are "addressing consumer confusion" about high-definition formats, so come early March, the consumer electronics retailer will prominently showcase Blu-ray hardware and software products in its Best Buy retail stores and Best Buy online in the United States.
“Consumers have told us that they want us to help lead the way. We’ve listened to our customers, and we are responding. Best Buy will recommend Blu-ray as the preferred format,” said Brian Dunn, Best Buy’s president and chief operating officer. “Our decision to shine a spotlight on Blu-ray Disc players and other Blu-ray products is a strong signal to our customers that we believe Blu-ray is the right format choice for them.” Dunn continued, “Best Buy has always believed that the customer will benefit from a widely-accepted single format that would offer advantages such as product compatibility and expanded content choices. Because we believe that Blu-ray is fast emerging as that single format, we have decided to focus on Blu-ray products.”
Best Buy will continue to carry an assortment of HD-DVD products, just don't expect the same selection compared to Blu-ray products.
As for Netflix, the world's largest online movie rental service said that it will be going exclusively with the Blu-ray format. The company cited the decision by four of the six major movie studios to publish high-def DVD titles only in the Sony-developed Blu-ray format as their reason for going strictly Blu-ray. Netflix will phase out their HD DVD selections, so I feel for all of you who, like me, went out and bought one of those reasonably priced HD DVD players recently. What a Bummer!
"The prolonged period of competition between two formats has prevented clear communication to the consumer regarding the richness of the high-def experience versus standard definition," said Ted Sarandos, chief content officer for Netflix. "We're now at the point where the industry can pursue the migration to a single format, bring clarity to the consumer and accelerate the adoption of high-def. Going forward, we expect that all of the studios will publish in the Blu-ray format and that the price points of high-def DVD players will come down significantly. These factors could well lead to another decade of disc-based movie watching as the consumer's preferred means."
