Blu-ray Shifts Promo Plans

Members of the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) were not declaring victory in the war of the HD disc formats at International CES, but their actions seemed to be speaking louder than their words.

Since Warner Bros.' surprise announcement that it will exclusively back Blu-ray Disc later this year, leaders of some of the BDA's largest manufacturers and studios said they have agreed to shift gears in their joint promotional and marketing efforts from a Blu-ray vs. HD DVD approach to one that will promote the advantages of Blu-ray over standard definition DVDs.

"Hopefully, we can start focusing our energy away from fighting about which format is the better format and now start focusing on consumer education," said Steve Beeks, Lionsgate president/COO. "The choice is clear - consumers need to upgrade from standard def to high def, and perhaps we can start to see packaged media sales start to grow again."