Warner cuts projections on high-def dvd sales due to Blu-ray delays
by Matt Burns 
posted Oct 9th 2006 at 3:05PM
Warner is backing off of that huge golden fourth quarter forecast they predicted a few months back citing Blu-ray hardware delays. According to the studio consumers have only spent $30 million on the new formats which is far less then what was expected and therefore Warner has dropped the amount they are going to spend on the formats. Panasonic, Sony, Pioneer, and Samsung are all going to have players out by Christmas (hopefully) but this hardware was initial suppose to be out, well, now. It takes time for consumers to warm up to new tech and takes even more time for retailers to put the stuff on sale so more then just the early adapters will buy 'em. Thus Nickerson has indicated that consumers are only going to spend $750 million instead of the the initial $1.5 billion originally forecasted and only $150 million will be spent on Warner's bread and butter, software. We just wonder what the accountants would be saying if the two formats would have consolidated way back when.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
ColourSource @ Oct 9th 2006 7:05PM
If it's affecting Warner, it must be affecting all studios. Can't see this problem going away anytime soon.
But it seems to me they're expecting the PS3 to really push the format, which still remains to be seen if it can do that.
hmurchison @ Oct 9th 2006 8:52PM
Wow Warner got stung by the mythical promises of Blu-Ray. Remember...both formats were supposed to ship in Q1..HD DVD shipped the next quarter and Samsung got their player out but most of the people were waiting for the Pioneer/Sony/Panasonic players which are just now trickling out (panasonic that is). Perhaps Warner should increase their focus on the platform that's executing their strategy on time. HD DVD.
Juice @ Oct 11th 2006 3:01PM
yeah if paramount and warner went back to only supporting HDDVD, goodbye war. They were blinded by the old blu ray bait.
Joshua @ Oct 10th 2006 5:16PM
It's pretty obvious, considering people don't want to spend so much money on something right now that may not even be around a few years from now. That, and the fact that most consumers (Wal-Mart, etc.) just began to really accept DVD a couple of years ago or so.