Paramount Goes HD DVD Exclusive!

Paramount Press release on HD DVD exclusivity

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PARAMOUNT AND DREAMWORKS ANIMATION EACH DECLARE EXCLUSIVE SUPPORT FOR HD DVD

Movies Distributed by Paramount Home Entertainment Including Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks Animation SKG, DreamWorks Pictures, Paramount Vantage, Nickelodeon Movies and MTV Films to be Released Exclusively in HD DVD

Exclusive Program To Begin with Release of “Blades of Glory,” Followed by “Transformers” and “Shrek the Third,” Films Representing More Than $1.5 Billion in Combined Worldwide Box Office

Los Angeles, CA, August 20, 2007 – Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA and VIA.B) and DreamWorks Animation SKG (NYSEWA), each announced today that they will exclusively support the next-generation HD DVD format on a worldwide basis. The exclusive HD DVD commitment will include all movies distributed by Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks Pictures, Paramount Vantage, Nickelodeon Movies and MTV Films, as well as movies from DreamWorks Animation, which are distributed exclusively by Paramount Home Entertainment.

The companies each said that the decision to distribute exclusively in the HD DVD format resulted from an extensive evaluation of current market offerings, which confirmed the clear benefits of HD DVD, particularly its market-ready technology and lower manufacturing costs. Paramount Home Entertainment will launch its exclusive HD DVD program with the release of the blockbuster comedy hit “Blades of Glory” on August 28th and follow with two of the biggest grossing movies of the year “Transformers” and “Shrek the Third”. These three titles alone represent more than $1.5 billion in box office ticket sales worldwide.

“The combination of Paramount and DreamWorks Animation brings a critical mass of current box office hits to consumers with a line-up of live action and animated films that are perfect for HD DVD,” stated Brad Grey, Chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictures, which is currently the leading studio in domestic box office. “Part of our vision is to aggressively extend our movies beyond the theater, and deliver the quality and features that appeal to our audience. I believe HD DVD is not only the affordable high quality choice for consumers, but also the smart choice for Paramount.”

“We decided to release “Shrek the Third” and other DreamWorks Animation titles exclusively on HD DVD because we believe it is the best format to bring high quality home entertainment to a key segment of our audience – families,” stated DreamWorks Animation CEO, Jeffrey Katzenberg. “We believe the combination of this year’s low- priced HD DVD players and the commitment to release a significant number of hit titles in the fall makes HD DVD the best way to view movies at home.”

With the rapid increase of HD TV screens in households, and audiences wanting to enjoy the total entertainment experience, HD DVD has emerged as the most affordable way for consumers to watch their movies in high definition. In addition to pristine quality, HD DVD also offers consumers the chance to personalize the movie-watching experience, to interact with their movies and even to connect with a community of other fans.

Paramount Home Entertainment will issue new releases day and date as well as catalog titles exclusively on HD DVD. Today’s announcement does not include films directed by Steven Spielberg as his films are not exclusive to either format.

About Paramount Pictures Corporation

Paramount Pictures Corporation (PPC), a global producer and distributor of filmed entertainment, is a unit of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), a leading content company with prominent and respected film, television and digital entertainment brands. The company’s labels include Paramount Pictures, Paramount Vantage, Paramount Classics, MTV Films, Nickelodeon Movies and DreamWorks Studios. PPC operations also include Paramount Digital Entertainment, Paramount Home Entertainment, Paramount Pictures International, Paramount Licensing Inc., Paramount Studios and Worldwide Television Distribution.

About DreamWorks Animation SKG

DreamWorks Animation is principally devoted to developing and producing computer generated, or CG, animated feature films. With world-class creative talent, a strong and experienced management team and advanced CG filmmaking technology and techniques, DreamWorks Animation makes high quality CG animated films meant for a broad movie-going audience. The Company has theatrically released a total of fourteen animated feature films, including Antz, Shrek, Shrek 2, Shark Tale, Madagascar, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Over the Hedge, Flushed Away, and Shrek the Third. DreamWorks Animation’s newest release, Bee Movie, opens in theaters November 2, 2007.

---

My Equipment List
HD DVD & Blu-ray Release Listings
HD DVD: 99
Blu-ray: 51

Wow, this is huge for HD DVD. It looks like Transformers will be HD dvd only. I don't think the format war is going to end anytime soon.

Yeah this is a major milestone if this happens.

---

"Make everything as simple as possible, but no simpler." - Albert Einstein

"If all else fails, spin the cat."- Grzboken

I can't help but feel a little miffed at this. As if there wasn't enough HD tussle in the marketplace already.

Although Transformers isn't the best movie, I have to say it's a must-own for HD. And personally, as an early uptaker of Blu-Ray, I have no idea what I'll do now. Thanks very much Paramount.

---

View our home theatre project at the Wychwood website. Comments welcome!

LOL... well I only own an HD-DVD player for now, but I own several Blu-ray discs already with the anticipation that I will soon own a Blu-ray player or a combo player. I feel like it's inevitable that both formats are going to survive for quite some time.

---

Sonnie



Cedar Creek Cinema

The Behemoth

Funny how BR supporters are claiming this is causing confusion in the market place when the whole format came about against HD DVD which was approved by the DVD Forum which they are members of and expected to follow there standards

---

My Equipment List
HD DVD & Blu-ray Release Listings
HD DVD: 99
Blu-ray: 51

With the fourth quarter and the all-important Holiday 2007 shopping season coming up, HD DVD had to do something to counter all the Blu-ray momentum. This does buy HD DVD some time and keeps things interesting.

You really think BR has momentum? I think there propaganda machine might have it appear so but comparing recent format advances I would say HD has been by far outpacing BR. I dont want to jump of the topic of Paramount here but if you would like to discuss it further I would be interested in seeing what you had to say on the subject and also offering my own info.

"Buys HD DVD some time" it sounds as if they were previously dying when they were not. Before the announcement was even made yesterday, HD DVD was already in the lead for having more content available to consumers then Blu-ray. Surprisingly because BR's whole campaign was built around the "Content is King" approach.

With adult titles, no region coding and imported titles available, 1,000 independent titles due out before the end of the year, Universal and now Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks Pictures, Paramount Vantage, Nickelodeon Movies and MTV Films, as well as movies from DreamWorks Animation all being exclusive to HD DVD I think more then buys some time...

---

My Equipment List
HD DVD & Blu-ray Release Listings
HD DVD: 99
Blu-ray: 51

While it's still neck-and-neck, it seems that BluRay's marketing philosophy is the old "Carthage must burn" ploy. (Cato said that after all his speeches regardless of topic, eventually the Roman Senate found a thin justification and did just that by saying the treaty ending the Punic war was violated)

If you say something enough publicly, regardless of truth or merit, people will start to believe it.

Audioholics had an article from CES or one of those shows where BluRay made up fake newspapers and trade publications saying the format war was over (when in reality it had barely begun).

It'll be interesting. As of now I'm an HD-DVD guy BECAUSE they hit the magic price point. That seems to be somethign the BR doesn't get yet. He who locks in the Wal Mart consumer base first wins. Tech specs and fancy marketing mean nothing. A $200 player and sub-$20 titles does. HD-DVD seems to at least be trying for that.

My 2 cents, for what it's worth.

Thing is though, HD DVD doesn't own these production houses so it's not like they told them to make the swap. It sounds like it's a decision based on the number of players and the soon to be reached magic price where consumers impulse buy. When the PS3 is taken out of the equation (I own one and it's a fantastic BD player BTW) according to the article HD DVD has a slight lead in overall units. Then add in that HD DVD is more popular and more widely accepted and used over in Europe than BD, and it looks like this was a decision the movie companies made and not one Toshiba pulled out of their hat.

I'm convinced we'll see HD DVD players for $150 or less on Black Friday, and that will be a huge milestone. Even if there are some incredible sales on Bluray players, a lot of people are shying away to wait for the new players and profile to come out.

I agree with the sentiment that this is far from over, the tides just keep shifting back and forth is all.

---

"Make everything as simple as possible, but no simpler." - Albert Einstein

"If all else fails, spin the cat."- Grzboken

I'm not sure I understand this one -- HD DVD was created, and is championed, by Toshiba. My understanding was that all of the other major electronics companies are behind Blu-Ray.

JCD

RCA went HD DVD but is no longer a real CE manu. Samsung was BD but went dual format. LG was gonna go BD but went dual format. Onkyo went HD DVD. Meridian (albeit small) is supposed to be going HD DVD. Lite-On is going to make drives for the 360 HD DVD player add on. Yamaha is ? Marantz is ?

Sorry, I meant to say "Before the formats came out.." and then the rest of my post.

At least that's been my understanding -- which I wouldn't bet big money on..

JCD

Blu-ray still has an overwhelming amount of CE support, as well as the advantage in exclusive studio support. HD DVD has a very important price advantage on the hardware side, while Blu-ray has a slight advantage on the software side. Blu-ray has outsold HD DVD from a total discs perspective, as well as a healthy 2:1 sales advantage in 2007 year to date. This pace was not looking to change because the studio support was not changing. This was without FOX pumping out titles, so HD DVD had to do something to secure some sort of incentive to keep people's faith in the format. So, enter the Paramount/Dreamworks deal and now it will keep HD DVD from getting wiped out this Holiday 2007 season. Seriously, without some move like this, Blu-ray's marketing with the Disney promo tours, Target promotional endcap display, Blockbuster deal, FOX's aggressive Q4 release schedule, Sony's Spiderman thingy, Pirates, Pixar, Die Hard, Silver Surfer, etc...Blu-ray would have(and still will) had a slaughter. The lead won't be as big as it would have, but even with this news, Blu-ray has a healthy position, while HD DVD is in high alert. There is no quick death now for HD DVD, which means 2 formats, which means total consumer confusion and lack of mass adoption. This is bad. On the bright side, it means aggressive pricing aimed at early adoptors, so we'll get more hardware for the buck and see product improvements faster, as well as big incentives to buy into the race.

that was my point all along: HD is offering a no-risk price point. $250 -- worth it. $500 to $1000 -- not worth jumping in.

Although my wife heard the news and told me about the Dreamworks deal last night (even though I already knew), it means news like that is reaching people who otherwise wouldn't care. I'm not sure what that means, but it caught my attention.

I don't quite understand what you're saying. Either side would be a risk(actually any format is always at risk of being obsoleted, even if its a unified format). HD DVD has a lower cheapest player of the A2 being roughly $250. Blu-ray's cheapest player is the Sony BDP-S300 at about $450. The comparable 1080P HD DVD player is the A20 at about $400. So, if you look at risks involved, its nearly a level playing field, with $200 at most being the difference. For anyone who is already interested in high def, $200 is not a big deal. To an average Joe, $200 is a deal breaker, but at this point its not a barrier, and by the time it would matter, there won't be a price difference.

Even with that, I hear ya on the $200 difference, and this will continue to sell HD DVD players. With Paramount coming on board to HD DVD, that will help move more players as well.

Basically, I was saying that at $250, I jumped. $300 was too much. Too much risk of buying something that will be useless in 5 years. Too much worry that I won't get my money's worth out of it (but barely).

For $250 or cheaper, well then, the risks become more manageable. The bargain outweighs the risk and now the product is has more value. It's only $50, I know. But it's a discretionary upgrade. Most people have a DVD player and will be happy with it for years to come. Add in the risk of having an expensive paperweight in a few years and they say, "pass".

Techies and early adopters like us have a higher threshold. Mine happened to be $250, J6P (to resurrect an old term) is probably closer to $150. On the flip side, to some people $500 is the noise level in how much they spend on a night on the town. For them, they can just buy both players so why worry? I envy those people (but only a little bit)