The outfit’s support would be a boon for Sony’s next-generation DVD — and a major blow to rival Toshiba’s HD DVD format Warner Brothers is poised to raise the stakes in what has become a pitched battle over the next generation of digital videodisks, or DVDs.
Warner Brothers is expected to throw its weight behind a new generation of high-definition DVDs sponsored by long-time rival Sony, BusinessWeek Online has learned.
The new DVD, called Blu-ray, could eventually replace the standard DVD format that today accounts for an estimated $18 billion a year in U.S. sales and has been Hollywood’s hottest growth engine for the last six years.
Endorsement by Warner Brothers — a division of Time Warner — would be a crucial vote of confidence in a new technology that has already drawn support from Walt Disney and Fox, both of which said they would release their movies only on Blu-ray disks. It could also undermine efforts by Toshiba to garner support for a rival next-generation disk, the so-called HD DVD.
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