Lions Gate goes with Blu-ray

Touts cost, copyright protection, PlayStation 3 as reasons

By Jennifer Netherby -- Video Business, 8/17/2005

AUG. 17 | The Blu-ray Disc format continues to gain momentum, with Lions Gate Entertainment the latest studio to commit to releasing movies and other titles on the Sony-backed high-definition format, expected to launch early next year.

Lions Gate represents just 4% of the home video market and as such isn’t expected to shift the balance in Blu-ray’s direction. But today’s announcement represents the latest in a string of coups for Blu-ray, following last month’s announcement by 20th Century Fox that the studio would release its programming on the format.

On Tuesday, Universal Music Group—no connection to the Universal movie studio—said it had joined the Blu-ray Disc Assn. as a contributing member. The company stopped short of pledging to release its music discs in the format.

Lions Gate joins Fox, Disney and Sony to endorse Blu-ray and commit to releasing high-def discs in the format. Warner Bros, Paramount and the Universal film studios are backing the rival high-def format HD DVD.

DreamWorks remains the only studio yet to pick a side.

Blu-ray’s gains come as HD DVD faces evaporating studio support for a planned fourth-quarter launch. Studios recently have been scaling back their previously signaled plans to release a slate of movie titles in the format by year’s end, amid concerns that only limited numbers of HD DVD players will be ready for the much-trumpeted 2005 holiday debut.

Lions Gate president Steve Beeks said Lions Gate was swayed in favor of Blu-ray by new disclosures on manufacturing costs. He also lauded the Blu-ray group’s decision to adopt renewable copyright protections.

“The timing was right,” Beeks said in an interview Tuesday. “We have been very adamant about sitting on the fence for a long period of time. But it was a conscious decision on our part, because we felt the best thing for us to do was to wait until there was enough information in the marketplace.”

In the last two weeks, disc replication companies have shown the studio that manufacturing costs of Blu-ray would fall in the next three to five years to within the range of what the studio currently pays to make standard DVDs, he said.

Beeks added that the inclusion of the Blu-ray format on the spring-bowing PlayStation 3 is notable.

“We want to be one of the first movers in technology,” Beeks said. “We anticipate being among the first to have titles released on Blu-ray.”

Lions Gate said it plans to put out new releases, library films and TV programming at launch. The company didn’t say how many or which titles it will release in high-def, but it touted recent DVD releases including Saw, The Punisher and catalog titles T2, Rambo and Dirty Dancing.

Even as Lions Gate picked sides, Beeks said he is hopeful that unification talks between Blu-ray and HD DVD backers will continue.

“I think there’s definitely still a chance of coming together,” he said. “We’re months away from a launch. With the HD DVD commitment pulled back, there’s some breathing room.”