Original URL: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/12/04/oz_rental_chains_go_blu_ray/
Major Australian rental chains Video Ezy and Blockbuster - both of which are owned by the same company, Franchise Entertainment Group - have gone all-out for Blu-ray Disc, they said today. Neither chain - comprising 870 stores in total - will now offer HD DVD rentals.
According to FEG Managing Director Paul Uniacke, quoted (http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/hd-dvd-told-youre-missing-the-boat/2007/12/04/1196530626138.html) by the Sydney Morning Herald, that the decision had been made because of what he claimed was the HD DVD camp's slow roll out of the next-gen optical disc format Down Under.
HD DVD, he said, was "missing the boat".
The Herald cited stats from market watcher GfK showing that some 2241 Blu-ray Disc players have been bought by Australians to date. But Aussies have bought only 609 HD DVD machines. The BD figure does not include PlayStation 3 purchases, of which 100,000 have been bought since the console when on sale at the end of March. Some 2461 HD DVD Xbox 360 add-ons have been bought too.
GfK's numbers show sales of 102,000 Blu-ray Discs in Australia but only 18,000 HD DVDs, though that figure doesn't include region-free discs purchased from US and European sellers.
Warner Bros gives all its hi-def loving to Blu-ray (5 January 2008)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/01/05/warner_bros_blu_ray_exclusive/
Researcher: 'Second wave' HD adopters favour HD DVD (11 December 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/12/11/hd_adoption_rates/
US Blu-ray Disc player sales pass 2.7m (7 December 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/12/07/us_blu_ray_sales/
Transformers director blames MS for HD DVD/Blu-ray format war (6 December 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/12/06/bay_blames_ms/
Blu-ray widens US disc sales lead (3 December 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/12/03/us_hd_sales/
US HD DVD player sales pass 750,000 (28 November 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/11/28/us_hddvd_total_rockets/
Blu-ray discs outsell HD DVDs almost 3:1 in Europe (27 November 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/11/27/euro_bd_hddvd_sales_stats/
Blu-ray dominates Japanese HD recorder sales (23 November 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/11/23/bd_dominates_japan_hd_r_sales/
Euro HD DVD camp clams up on format sales figures (14 November 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/11/14/euro_hddvd_sales_challenge/
Sony CEO: format war in 'stalemate' (9 November 2007)
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/11/09/stringer_on_bluray/