EU to look into Blu-Ray exclusivity deals
European Commission to investigate why so many content providers went for Blu-Ray over its rival HD-DVD.
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The European Commission is setting up a probe into the activities of companies supporting the next generation disc format Blu-Ray in a bid to find out if the backers of the format broke EU competition rules.
A spokeswoman for competition commissioner Neelie Kroes said that the Commission is seeking information from content providers and manufacturers over their reasons for backing either Blu-Ray or its rival HD-DVD disc format. The Commission is particularly interested as to why most major film studios went for the Blu-Ray format exclusively.
"We want more information about whether the studios have arrangements with the Blu-ray format, and if so what those arrangements are," the spokeswoman told IT PRO's sister publication PC Pro.
Both formats hold much more data than DVDs. Blu-Ray discs hold 50GB of data on a dual-layer disc while its rival HD-DVD only hold 30GB of data on a dual-layer disc. Blu-Ray discs are similar to Sony's PDD discs, which are aimed at business data archiving.
According to reports from the Wall Street Journal, backers of the rival HD-DVD format, which include Toshiba, Microsoft and Intel, asked the commission to look into the tactics of members of the Blu-Ray camp, which is led by Sony.
The Commission has asked to be provided with emails, phone records and any other supporting documents related to the probe.
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Rene Millman is a freelance writer and broadcaster who covers cybersecurity, AI, IoT, and the cloud. He also works as a contributing analyst at GigaOm and has previously worked as an analyst for Gartner covering the infrastructure market. He has made numerous television appearances to give his views and expertise on technology trends and companies that affect and shape our lives. You can follow Rene Millman on Twitter.
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