Warner Lowers High-Def Sales Forecast

Faced with shortages of high-def hardware, Warner has downgraded their original projections of overall 2006 consumer spending on the Blu-ray and HD DVD formats.

In a presentation earlier today at the High Def 101 conference in Los Angeles, Warner senior VP Steve Nickerson said that despite $30 million spent by consumers on high-def hardware and software through September, it failed to meet projects due in part to delayed high-def launches.

Nickerson then said that Warner's initial year-end projection of $1.5 billion to $1.9 billion in consumer high-def hardware spending has now been revised downward to $750 million, while the studio expects another $150 million to be spent on software, also down from an original estimate of up to $500 million.

However, the company still remains bullish on prospects for both Blu-ray and HD DVD, citing greater market penetration of high-def hardware and software versus standard DVD, in a comparable timeframe after launch.

"Despite the two different high-definition formats, sales of compatible hardware devices will be much faster for high-def than for standard-definition," Nickerson said.