Will porn determine who wins the Blu-ray/HD-DVD format war?
By DiGiTAL
The availability of pornographic videos helped the VHS video tape format triumph over Betamax in early 1980s. Now a senior analyst at Forrester is suggesting that the availability of porn may affect who wins the high-definition DVD format war between HD-DVD and Blu-ray.
James McQuivey, a senior analyst at research firm Forrester, says that if the porn industry decided to throw its support behind HD-DVD, it would make a significant difference.
“If the porn industry wanted to break the logjam of HD-DVD and Blu-ray, it could. If they said ‘We are going to go with HD-DVD’ you would see a few million homes immediately go out and buy HD-DVD players. They have that power,” McQuivey told Reuters.
While Sony discourages porn on Blu-ray, it’s much cheaper and easier for porn publishers to create HD-DVD discs - the replicators are readily available. The head of adult video publisher, Digital Playground, told Reuters that ”HD-DVD has helped us tremendously to get titles out.”
The latest Nielsen VideoScan figures show that Blu-ray titles are outselling HD-DVD titles by seven to three – though we are talking about very small figures, and the format war could still go either way.
It should be remembered that porn industry was very different in the early 1980s. Back in the early 1980s the only way porn fans could indulge themselves was to sneak away to a sleazy porn theatre. VHS allowed them to indulge themselves at home, which as you can imagine, made life a lot easier, and so made the purchase of a VHS player compelling.
Nowadays, porn is widely available via the Internet — it’s relatively cheap (or even free) and there is a huge choice available. In many ways, the Internet is the ideal delivery vehicle for pornographic content.
Sure, the easier availability of porn on HD-DVD might make a small difference, but it won’t make or break either format — the world has moved on.
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