Posted from Yahoo! News (October 2, 2005):
Paramount said Sunday it will join a growing list of media and technology companies endorsing Blu-ray...Paramount will still market all its DVD movies in the competing HD DVD format so consumers can have a choice, company officials said.
...after an analysis of the cost and copy protection solutions available, according to a prepared statement. Paramount also said it was attracted by Blu-ray's storage capacity, which is five times that of current DVDs.
I think this just goes to show that Blu-ray shall overcome. The article also mentioned PlayStation 3 support for Blu-ray as a factor; Sony really knows how to market their new product. I bet the guys at Toshiba are chastising Uncle Bill over the lack of HD DVD support in Xbox 360. Too bad Universal Pictures, you were on the wrong side of the fence when this schoolyard bullying started.
I'm not sure though, how it is Paramount decided Blu-ray has lower costs. Everything I've seen makes it out that retooling factories leads to a big increase in up-front costs. However, if you think about it, more data on the disc (I think almost 60% more) means more content on a single disc, and a 2-disc collector's edition becomes a one-disc collector's edition. Paramount keeps the extra fifty cents. Not too bad, I guess.
Now that Paramount has joined the fold, are there any other big players to consider? Only time (and the news media) will tell.
UPDATE: Warner Bros. softens on HD DVD, says it’ll do Blu-ray, too - October 9, 2005 via Engadget