Is Fox the reason Warner Bros. chose Blu-ray?

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The Wall Street Journal has an article on the Warner Bros. decision to back Blu-ray only. Now, before I continue I want to stress that what you are about to read is purely speculation at this point so please don't take it in any other way.

According to a Wall Street Journal article called "In Blu-ray Coup, Sony Has Opening But Hurdles, Too," Fox may have played a role in the Warner Bros. decision to back Blu-ray only.

"Toshiba was still working hard last week to court Warner and News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox to use HD DVD exclusively. Warner was considering it, people familiar with the matter say, but when it realized Fox wouldn't leave Blu-ray, decided to go with Blu-ray exclusively as well, to bring an end to the format war," said the article.

What this comment also shows is that both sides no doubt have used all means possible to get studio support.

The article also believes that the decision was not consumer based, saying "Even with major studios on board, Sony must still win over consumers to Blu-ray. Consumers were arguably better off with HD DVD technology, which generally cost less to produce, contributing to HD DVD players selling for as little as $99 over the holidays. Meanwhile, Blu-ray players cost about $300 and up -- and movie titles issued in Blu-ray are often sold for twice the cost of a regular DVD."

However, the decision has given Sony a big advantage and puts them in a clear position to win the format war. "For now, Blu-ray gives Sony the rare chance to capitalize on being the creator of a market-dominating tech product -- a status it has rarely known in recent years. In the 1980s, its Betamax videotape format lost to VHS. It failed in an effort to get significant chunks of its technology into the highly lucrative DVD format. More recently, it was outflanked by Apple Inc.'s iPod in the drive to create personal digital music players." the article says.

Lastly, I know that some are thin skinned when it comes to the HD format war but please don't take this as a bias for one or the other format. Simply another view on what happened behind the scenes in one of the biggest technology wars in the last 10 years.

Source: Wall Street Journal.

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