Netflix chooses Blu-Ray over HD-DVD

Another major blow to the HD DVD camp was announced Monday by online video rental company Netflix Inc, which said today that it would begin phasing out its stock of HD DVD titles and exclusively stock Blu-ray high-definition DVDs.

Since the high-definition wars began in 2006, Netflix has stocked high-definition DVDs from both Sony Corp's Blu-ray format and the competing HD DVD format developed by Toshiba Corp.

Since the beginning of 2008, four out of six major Hollywood studios have decided to publish high-definition titles only using the Blu-ray format. Netflix has cited this move as a clear signal from the industry, and said it will only buy Blu-ray discs going forward and will phase out stock of HD DVD by about the end of the year.

Ted Sarandos, chief content officer for Netflix, provided some forward looking statements about the expectation that all major Hollywood studios would publish in Blu-Ray format:

"We're now at the point where the industry can pursue the migration to a single format, bring clarity to the consumer and accelerate the adoption of high-def. Going forward, we expect that all of the studios will publish in the Blu-ray format and that the price points of high-def DVD players will come down significantly. These factors could well lead to another decade of disc-based movie watching as the consumer's preferred means."

For those Netflix subscribers who were primarily using the online rental service for HD DVD rentals, it remains unclear what other rental alternatives will be available for HD DVD media.

Source: Netflix.com