Universal.. the man behind it all?

[goshikisen]

"Universal.. the man behind it all?"

I suppose that would be Crazy Ken Graffeo... he's not only the executive vice president of HD strategic marketing for Universal Studios Home Entertainment but also the co-president of the HD DVD Promotional Group. A bit of a conflict of interest for an executive of a publicly traded company... but red folks might think otherwise.

Not sure if Ken has anything to do with Theme Parks.

[view-it-purple]

Think about it, Universal is the one studio with the themeparks.. They market the movies in everyway, why not have their own format? If Paramount wants to join.. Well hop on board, but if you look at the current library of HD DVD (even with the Warner movies) Universal is the main player.

Someone really needs to tell this guy that Disney & Paramount both also own theme-parks too.

At all 5 of the Disney parks there are advertisements for Disney .

Does anyone have data on if the "Days of Thunder" ride & or the Wayne's World inspired "Hurller" @ Paramount's Kings Dominion has sold any players?

[electricturd]

Sounds like blu bs.

They dont need to switch and have expressed no intention of doing so.

Anything else is just blu fanboy delusions. Dream on.

Oh, kind of like Warner expressed no intention of switching?

[ElektronikSupersonik]

What's stopping Universal from switching to blu? This is highly debated and some even believe the switch will occur soon.. I tend to disagree, why?

What if Universal likes the fact that HD DVD is their format.. I strongly believe they have a huge say in the whole process and this is actually something positive. Why would they even bother? They could clearly point out that if you want to watch a Universal movie.. you have to watch it on HD DVD. There's nothing stopping them from doing this..

Think about it, Universal is the one studio with the themeparks.. They market the movies in everyway, why not have their own format? If Paramount wants to join.. Well hop on board, but if you look at the current library of HD DVD (even with the Warner movies) Universal is the main player.

Who knows, maybe they want it that way..

Are you aware that Universal has been behind almost every other major studio in annual box office ticket sales since like 2000?

Wow, they have themeparks. Great. But they sell fewer movie tickets every year than disney, fox, sony, WB, paramount...

[Favelle]

A bit of a conflict of interest for an executive of a publicly traded company... but red folks might think otherwise.

Are you for real? A publicly traded company? So is Sony. Are they not, similarily in a "conflict of interest" as well?? Hmmm....

[Gr00v3r]

Well you might have something with the whole Universal HD DVD thing as they have been the one studio to always be HD DVD and all their HD movies are on HD DVD. However I don't think UNiversal will maintain their HD DVD format once the players disappear and Blu-ray is the predominant format. I mean sure pick up the UNiversal tittles now if you want as it will take some time for those movies to get re-released on Blu-ray.

[Robert D]

I believe Universal is owned by GE and it could be that GE will make any decisions on what format Universal supports.

[Frankly]

Are you for real? A publicly traded company? So is Sony. Are they not, similarily in a "conflict of interest" as well?? Hmmm....

Two totally separate things. Sony has it's OWN studio... there is no "double duty" being performed there with obligations.

The point he is making, is that Toshiba does NOT own Universal, which shareholders may not like him concentrating on TWO jobs, as when that happens, one or both usually suffers.

The fact that that Universal is sucking the hind tit in movie sales could be because "Crazy Ken" is too busy spinning for the PRG and Toshiba, and not minding his own henhouse. And the shareholders would be just in that concern.

Anyway, that is what I took his statement to mean.

[Frankly]

I believe Universal is owned by GE and it could be that GE will make any decisions on what format Universal supports.

And you are correct.

[ronnie_barzel]

Someone really needs to tell this guy that Disney & Paramount both also own theme-parks too.

Actually, Paramount no longer owns theme parks. The company sold all of them -- including the Star Trek one in Vegas -- to Cedar Fair in 2006. The parks stopped having the name Paramount attached to them (e.g. Paramount King's Island) last year.

[stevo4]

Oh, kind of like Warner expressed no intention of switching?

No. Not the same.
Why would it be?

[HarakoMeshi]

Because BOTH markets are so small the difference in profit is even smaller. Just because one market sells $2 as opposed to $1, doesn't mean the extra $1 in profit justifies any sort of move. LOL!

The reality is that top titles have already been selling in significant numbers, and so could Universal's. "300" HDM sales account for over 4% of all DVD sales. Factor in the difference in price between DVD & HDM and the percentage of HDM revenue is closer to 8% that of DVD. That has potential to more than double in the next year. Keep telling yourself that's just $1 and $2. We'll see what Universal's parent company thinks about passing up those percentages.

[stevo4]

"300" HDM sales account for over 4% of all DVD sales. Factor in the difference in price between DVD & HDM and the percentage of HDM revenue is closer to 8% that of DVD.

Rubbish, do have anything to back that up.

Or is that just more Blu FanBoy crap?

[Blik]

They could clearly point out that if you want to watch a Universal movie.. you have to watch it on HD DVD. There's nothing stopping them from doing this..

No, in fact that's what they're doing right now anyway...

But... it won't work. I don't think anybody would be willing to buy a player just to watch a specific movie (or a small bunch).

Well, I'd give a penny or two for a look behind the curtain here... In my opinion it's just they're bound by some contract and therefore can't switch, but I bet if they could, they would in a sec.

My personal bet: Beginning of June, after Warner stops releasing on HD DVD, we'll see some changes.

[Captain Jake]

I never understood a thought to keep two formats as a standard, if there are combo players to use the same manner to play movies, why even bother with two formats at all? These aren't game consoles.

HD DVD and Blu-ray are just delivery mechanisms, like satellite and cable feeds and even internet downloads. The market can supports multiple delivery mechanisms and has for several decades. One could ask, "why even bother with multiple delivery mechanisms?" but the reality is that the market can and does support them.