Paramount/Dreamworks going Exclusive?

August 20th, 2007, 17:39 Posted By: Elven6

For those who are following the HD format wars, they know that Paramount and Dreamworks are the 2 studios that are currently neutral, meaning their films get released on both formats. Today, rumors have come out that they both may be thinking of going over to HD DVD's side, because of certain cash donations given to them by the DVD Forum.

Up until now, Paramount and DreamWorks (live action) were releasing in both Blu-ray and HD-DVD formats. The reason for shifting catalog exclusivity to HD-DVD would appear to be substantial upfront dollars. We expect these dollars could have a meaningfully positive impact on Viacom's film profitability in 2H '07 and full-year 2008.

Separately, it appears that DreamWorks Animation is set to announced that 3-5 key titles (some catalog, some new releases, but details are still fuzzy) over the next several years will be made available exclusively in HD-DVD.

While we are somewhat surprised to see DWA favor a format given its smaller number of releases in a year similar to Paramount, we suspect the driving force of the decision was upfront payments to increase their support of HD-DVD. Given DWA's size, the financial impact on EPS in 2008-2010 could be a positive catalyst for the stock (we are still assuming that Shrek The Third is coming out in both formats in November 2007).

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.co...vd-format-war/


I really hope this is true, since I am one of those people who bought the HD DVD add on for 360.

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