Economic Crisis Could Kill Blu-Ray

If there is one sector that is sure to ride out the economic downturn in some comfort it has to be business punditry. Today's instalment in Things That Will Be Either Better Or Worse In The Next Financial Cycle comes from the HD3 Conference in LA, where a panel of entertainment execs discussed how the Blu-Ray format might suffer as the credit crunch begins to bite. Sony may have won the format wars - seeing HD-DVD driven before them and hearing the lamentation of its early adopters - but longer term the discs may go the way of the Betamax and it's all that pesky economy's fault. "The economy is the biggest challenge, because there are just so many pieces to the Blu-ray puzzle that consumers face," said Disney's Lori MacPherson, "You need the high-definition television set, you need the player, you need the cables, you need the software . . ."And films. You definitely need films. The price of which compared to DVD, streaming and downloads might also be a factor. "We're all constantly looking at (disc) pricing," said Rich Marty from Sony, "What it amounts to is that we'll wait until after the fourth quarter and see how it goes." Economy grinch may pinch Blu-ray format [Reuters]