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MGM Purchase Gives Sony An Edge In Disc Format War

Posted by timothy on from the any-color-so-long-as-it's-sony dept.

Grump writes "The New York Times reports: 'The purchase of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer by a group led by Sony will not only give the company an enormous film library but also considerable power in its fight to set the format for the next generation of digital video discs.' The article goes on to suggest that Sony is gearing up for another Betamax-style failure."

4 of 254 comments (clear)

  1. Never mind that, what about The Hobbit? by FunWithHeadlines · · Score: 4, Informative
    The sale of MGM was of interest to fans of LOTR since if Time Warner had bought MGM it would have meant a fast track for filming of The Hobbit with Peter Jackson et al. MGM has the filming rights for the story, and New Line (owned by Time Warner) has been trying to negotiate to get the rights to do the film. Had TW bought MGM, presumably this would have smoothed the way for the film to proceed. Now with Sony owning, what is going to happen next? Will they negotiate with TW to work something out that should be quite a lucrative venture? Or will they dig in their heels?

    Geeks everywhere want to know!

  2. Re:should that be... by sifi · · Score: 4, Informative

    DVD officially stands for nothing.

    From wikipedia

    "DVD" was originally an acronym for "digital versatile disc"; some members of the DVD Forum believe that it should stand for "digital video disc", due to the fact that most members of the public believe that DVD does stand for that. Toshiba, which maintains the official DVD Forum site, adheres to the interpretation of "digital versatile disc." The DVD Forum never reached a consensus on the matter, however, and so today the official name of the format is simply "DVD"; the letters do not 'officially' stand for anything.

    So now we know...

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  3. Re:Bad news by Portigui · · Score: 5, Informative
    Crap like this wouldn't happen under a Democratic President.
    You're right, major mergers would never happen under a Democratic president. In case those four don't fit your build because they are not entertainment driven, try this one.

    These happen regardless of the president in the office at the time.
  4. What bad track record? by tepples · · Score: 5, Informative

    PlayStation. PlayStation 2. Compact Disc itself, co-developed with Philips.

    True, Betamax the format is dead, but Betacam the format and Betamax the copyright precedent live on for now.