Hastings Calls for Hi-Def DVD “Format Agnosticism”
According to HDTVUK, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings sees no obvious winner in the on-going battle between the HD-DVD and Blu-ray disc formats. Consequently, Hastings has called for movie studios to support both formats, as there is no obvious victor in the battle between them.
Here is what Hastings had to say (via Cepro): “Our view is that the current format war is unwinnable by either Sony or Microsoft in the next several years. They are both powerful enough to maintain the stalemate. Hopefully, early next year the single format studios will join Warner and Paramount in becoming format agnostic. The press will declare the format war over and the consumer adoption cycle for High Definition DVDs will begin in earnest.”
HDbeat is quick to point out, however, that Blu-ray’s sluggish start and lackluster players are going to make it difficult to convince studios to back them. It will be interesting to see if this supposed “war” will go the way of the VHS/Beta-max battle of the 1980’s. My guess is that it will have to–can you think of an analogous technology in which two-formats could co-exist like Hastings thinks these are supposed to? The important thing to realize here is that the faster consumer confidence is restored in any Hi-Def DVD format, the better it is for Netflix.