Citing the “clear signal” from the movie industry—namely, that four of six major movie studios are backing Blu-ray exclusively—movie rental firm Netflix has announced it will only offer high-definition DVDs in Blu-ray format, phasing out HD DVD rentals by the end of 2008.
“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 Netflix’s chief content officer Ted Sarandos,in a statement. “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.”
Netflix says it won’t be acquiring any new HD DVD discs to supplement the HD DVD offerings already in its lineup, although it will leave those discs in rental circulation until they reach the end of their “natural life cycle” in the coming months. Netflix currently offers over 400 Blu-ray titles, and says that even though only a small portion of its subscribers rent high-definition movies, the majority of those subscribers chose Blu-ray over HD DVD.
The announcement comes as another blow to the HD DVD camp, which is still reeling from Warner Bros. January announcement that it would begin offering movies exclusively in the Blu-ray format, phasing out HD DVD by mid-year. Previously, the studio had been a fence-sitter, offering movies in both high-definition formats. The only major studios currently backing HD DVD are Paramount and Universal, although the format is still supported by Microsoft on its Xbox 360 game platform.
