EU Probes Competing HD Formats

The European Union (EU) is stepping up its probe into the competing high definition formats, focusing more on Blu-ray due to its success and exclusive studio support. They will be looking at any evidence of improper tactics to suppress competition, including exclusivity agreements. A decision against Blu-ray would likely affect all studios (including Universal), forcing them to support both formats in Europe. A decision will likely not come for some time, hopefully well after Blu-ray has established itself as the only HD format. A worse scenario would be that exclusive Blu-ray studios stop releasing HD content all together. With sales lagging well behind DVD, it would be much cheaper to focus on distribution of downloadable content and new DVD releases.