Twentieth Century Fox, a member of the Board of Directors of the Blu-ray Disc Association since October 2004, announced today that it will release content on the new high definition Blu-ray Disc format through its subsidiary Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment LLC. The company will begin releasing new films, TV programming and other titles from Fox’s vast celebrated library of best-selling film and television programming when Blu-ray hardware launches in North America, Japan, and Europe.
Fox’s film library includes films ranging from the ALIEN, DIE-HARD and X-MEN series, I, ROBOT, SOMETHING ABOUT MARY and MOULIN ROUGE to SOUND OF MUSIC, ALL ABOUT EVE, LAURA and GENTLEMAN’S AGREEMENT. The equally vast television library ranges from such shows as THE SIMPSONS, FAMILY GUY, 24 and X-FILES to MASH, LOST IN SPACE, IN LIVING COLOR and MARY TYLER MOORE.
Fox’s commitment to emerging technologies is dedicated to enhancing the consumer experience of its products and providing for backward compatibility with their existing home entertainment libraries while also aggressively protecting its intellectual property from piracy. The Blu-ray companies fully embrace the Studio’s steadfast commitment to the fight against piracy and the preservation of the integrity of its properties. In fact, Fox’s commitment to publish on Blu-ray is a direct result of the organization’s recent adoption of copyright protection measures, including renewable security, that address the needs and concerns of the studio and the entire Hollywood community.
“We are in creative collaboration with some of the best filmmakers in the business and the most important thing to the studio is that we continue to provide the best possible presentation of our films,” commented Jim Gianopulos and Tom Rothman, Chairmen, Fox Filmed Entertainment in the press release. “Creative advances in movie-making technology have consistently helped raise the bar in films today and with the Blu-ray Disc the bar has now been raised for the home viewing experience. We will take full advantage of all the creative possibilities it offers.”
“Blu-ray is a superior high definition technology that is a full step forward in the evolution of consumer packaged media,” added Mike Dunn, President Worldwide, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment in the press release. “For consumers, the release of our films on Blu-ray will provide in-home entertainment beyond anything they have imagined. On the business side, the advanced functionality, picture quality and data capacity at a competitive manufacturing cost along with ‘room for growth’ as new consumer usage options are developed, fully realizes the promise of a next generation format and represents the future of home entertainment.”
Blu-ray Disc is a next generation optical disc format developed for high-definition video and high-capacity software applications. A single-layer Blu-ray Disc will hold up to 25 gigabytes of data and a dual-layer Blu-ray Disc will hold up to 50 gigabytes of data. This greater storage capacity enables the Blu-ray Disc to store over five times the amount of content than is possible with current DVDs, and is particularly well-suited for high definition feature films with extended levels of additional bonus and interactive material. Blu-ray also features the most advanced copy protection, backward compatibility with the current DVD format (meaning Blu-ray players will play existing DVDs), connectivity and advanced interactivity.
The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) is responsible for establishing format standards and promoting and further developing business opportunities for Blu-ray Disc — the next-generation optical disc for storing high-definition movies, photos and other digital content. The BDA has more than 130 members. Its Board of Directors consists of Apple Computer, Inc.; Dell Inc.; Hewlett Packard Company; Hitachi, Ltd.; LG Electronics Inc.; Mitsubishi Electric Corporation; Panasonic (Matsushita Electric); Pioneer Corporation; Royal Philips Electronics; Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.; Sharp Corporation; Sony Corporation; TDK Corporation; Thomson; Twentieth Century Fox; and Walt Disney Pictures and Television.
Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment is the worldwide marketing, sales and distribution company for all Fox film and television programming on VHS and DVD as well as video acquisitions and original productions. Each year the Company introduces hundreds of new and newly enhanced products, which it services to retail outlets — from mass merchants and warehouse clubs to specialty stores and e-commerce – throughout the world. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment LLC is a subsidiary of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, a News Corporation company.
The Blu-ray Disc Association welcomed Apple Computer to its Board of Directors in March 2005. More info here.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Poll shows Apple-backed Blu-ray preferred by consumers over HD DVD for next-gen DVD standard – July 14, 2005
Microsoft allies with Toshiba on HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray Disc backers Apple and Sony – June 27, 2005
Apple joins Blu-ray Disc Association Board of Directors – March 10, 2005
i guess that MS format is going to erlagated to porn, just like the Windows Media stuff is now. Gotta laugh!
Porn is why VHS beat Beta, but Blu-ray will win because it has a higher storage capacity, which benefits multiple markets.
And don’t forget star wars hmm?
I’m wondering if MS came down on the side of HD-DVD due to Apple and Sony already being on the side of Blue-ray? Just so they can be on the opposite side of them.
Hey Brando, wouldn’t doubt it.
>i guess that MS format is going to erlagated to porn>
Yeah, gotta get me some of that ‘erlagation’.
What is going on?
I think Lucasfilm, not Fox, has video rights to Star Wars.
Well when even ass lickers like Murdoch jump ship then MS’s cloak of invulnerability sure looks shabby. I think that, as usual, MS’s preference for HD-DVD is more down to being able to manipulate a wounded struggler to do its bidding than any concern for quality or future proofing technology. MS never wants to future proof anything it does not ultimately control of course. On this one its arrogance is likely to bite back with a vengence however. It must be shocked that its influence counts for so little, or that the industry as a whole prefers quality over price on this one. Microsoft is truly being seen as the Luddite it has long been.
It’s true that Lucasfilm owns the “Star Wars” franchise, but they pretty much cede the distribution rights globally for both theatrical and home release to Fox.
So, unless George is going to switch deals in the next two years (which is highly doubtful, you can pretty much guarantee that Star Wars is coming to Blu-ray.
This kind of confusion will ultimately see Titanic (a Fox movie in theatres in the US, but a Paramount movie everywhere else and home release) released on HD-DVD.
Co-productions and bizarre distribution deals are going to make it very difficult to predict where a given film may land up when it comes to High Definition release.
“This kind of confusion will ultimately see Titanic (a Fox movie in theatres in the US, but a Paramount movie everywhere else and home release) released on HD-DVD.”
This was the distribution deal due to Fox and Paramount sharing production costs. In all probability, Paramount will release Titanic on HD-DVD throughout the rest of the world, but Fox will release it in the U.S. on Blu-Ray discs. Similar situations between other studios will probably result in similar types of multi format releases.
And everybody DVD region codes were a crock. Just wait until a movie not only gets a better HD release in another region (fixable with a multi-region player), but is in a different HD format.