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Lions Gate Entertainment
to Support Blu-ray Disc Format
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
The studio is poised to release wide range of
new products and titles from its vast film and
television library.
Lions Gate Home Entertainment (LGHE), a division
of Lions Gate Entertainment (NYSE: LGF; Toronto),
announced today that it will release content
on the new high definition Blu-ray Disc format.
As part of its cooperation with the Blu-ray
Disc Association, LGHE will begin releasing
new films, TV programming and other titles from
the company's vast library in that format when
Blu-ray hardware launches in North America.
The announcement was made by Steve Beeks, President,
Lions Gate Entertainment.
Through the announcement, LGHE joins Sony Pictures
Home Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox Home
Entertainment and Buena Vista Home Entertainment
as studios who have announced their support
for the Blu-ray format. With one of the largest
home video libraries in the industry, LGHE's
catalog of titles includes some of the biggest
in every genre including such titles from the
theatrical catalog as Saw, Blair Witch Project,
Open Water, Punisher, T2, Rambo, Total Recall,
Stargate and Dirty Dancing, TV to DVD titles
including Saturday Night Live and Will & Grace
and children's/family titles such as Barbie
and Clifford. More details about specific titles
for Blu-ray will be announced by LGHE in the
coming months.
Lions Gate's video group has always aggressively
supported emerging technologies. The studio
was the first after Sony to support the UMD
format, the first to release product on DVD-9,
DVD-18, DVD+CD, the first to utilize Microsoft
Windows Media 9 and one of the frontrunners
in acquiring VOD rights throughout its catalog.
Blu-ray has demonstrated the necessary qualities
to help propel the home entertainment industry
to the next level of performance.
LGHE's decision to support and publish on Blu-ray
is the result of many factors including the
recently announced copy protection measures
and progress made by DVD replicators toward
proving the format can be manufactured in a
mass production environment for an acceptable
cost. Additionally, the studio was enticed by
the expected impact on high definition packaged
media from the upcoming launch of the PlayStation(R)3
computer entertainment system and the prospect
of having its catalog of titles available for
the system.
"Lions Gate has always maintained the goal of
offering the consumer the best quality product,"
said Beeks. "Through Blu-ray, consumers will
experience our library of movies with sound
and picture quality beyond anything they could
have ever imagined. Additionally, Blu-ray's
storage capacity along with the level of copyright
protection the format offers, the demonstrated
manufacturability and acceptable cost proposition,
made it the perfect choice for Lions Gate at
this time."
Blu-ray Disc is a next generation optical disc
format developed for high-definition video and
other data intensive uses. 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 more than
five times the amount of content than is possible
with current DVDs, and is particularly well-suited
for high definition feature films with extensive
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.
ABOUT LIONS GATE ENTERTAINMENT
Lions Gate is the premier independent producer
and distributor of motion pictures, television
programming, home entertainment, family entertainment
and video-on-demand content. Its prestigious
and prolific library is a valuable source of
stable and recurring revenue, and it serves
as a foundation for the growth of the Company's
core businesses. The Lions Gate brand name is
synonymous with original, daring, quality entertainment
in markets around the world.
*Article provided by www.cdrinfo.com |
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