I have to say, I was extremely surprised by the recent announcement by Dreamworks that they are bound to an agreement with HD DVD without any type of escape clause. It just doesn't make any sense to me. Having met Mr. Katzenberg on a couple occaisons, it does shock me just a bit. However, these are sharp folks and the $150 million they were rumored to have been paid would not represent a huge number to them if they had to pay it back to "escape". So, I am withholding opinion on this for a bit, things just don't add up.
Courtesy of my friends at Afterdawn:
Dreamworks Studios has announced that they are still "locked" into an exclusivity deal with Toshiba to distribute their movies on HD DVD only and would continue to do so until Toshiba tells them differently. "We have a partnership with Toshiba and have an obligation to see this through," DreamWorks Chief Executive Jeffrey Katzenberg said.
"As you know, we have been well-compensated for our support. It really is in their court at this point to really declare what the next step will be. We're poised either way to jump into the marketplace when the conditions are right to do so," he added.
Katzenberg's comments seem to imply that all the past rumors were indeed correct and Dreamworks and Paramount were paid over $150 million USD to go HD DVD-exclusive for 18 months. It seems however that Paramount had a different clause in there contract because they recently dropped HD DVD in favor of Blu-ray.
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