Paramount Denies Report It will Drop HD DVD

Early today, The Financial Times reported that Paramount plans to drop Toshiba's HD DVD format and support Sony's Blu-Ray high-definition video-disc format. Paramount can defect because of a clause in its contract with the HD DVD group that allows the studio to switch to Blu-ray if Warner Brothers dropped its support of HD DVD.

However, this afternoon, Bloomberg.com reported that Paramount Pictures is denying the speculation.

Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures denied a newspaper report that the studio is poised to follow Time Warner Inc. in abandoning Toshiba Corp.'s HD DVD technology. "Paramount's current plan is to continue to support the HD DVD format,'' Brenda Ciccone, a spokeswoman for Paramount, said in an e-mail today.

Only time will tell if Paramount will follow Warner's jump to the Blu-ray camp. Either way, the Blu-Ray supporters are finally claiming victory in the high-def video-disc format wars.