Disney CEO criticizes HD DVD supporters

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Disney CEO Bob Iger criticizes HD DVD supporters and says that it was "easy money" that led some studios to only support HD DVD.

"We believe it's a no-brainer ... that the industry should be behind Blu-ray," Iger told investors at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia Conference.

"I think those studios were likely taking easy money. We haven't taken any money because we believe it," he said.

Our opinion on this:
Disney really has to watch its comments and its next steps. That Disney will talk negatively about studios he doesn't even want to mention by name is one thing and very unprofessional: Don't throw stones if you live in a glass house. A few examples of what Blu-ray did: Sony bought MGM shares before the launch of Blu-ray. This ultimately led to their having the final say in what MGM chose to support. They also refused to work with the DVD Forum and did not sit down to talk before they had finished Blu-ray, basically saying to take what we have made or have a format war. Also, a funny thing is that the interactive features found in the HD DVD format were co-developed by Microsoft and Disney, but suddenly Disney decided to drop it and support Blu-ray. Why? Who knows, but my guess is that it had something to do with money. The point is that companies do what they find best for their company, and Disney has done the same a number times. Hey, Bob, if you want Paramount and DreamWorks to support Blu-ray again, why don't you do the same and go neutral with support of HD DVD? Oh, and lastly, if you have to talk bad about others to justify your own decision to investors, isn't that worse than taking money?

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