Format backers launch Blu-ray Web site

By Jennifer Netherby -- Video Business, 7/11/2007

JULY 11 | Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment are backing a new Web site aimed at steering high-definition consumers toward Blu-ray Disc.

Objectively dubbed Hollywood in Hi-Def, the site is nonetheless a Blu-ray promotional vehicle, edited by Scott Hettrick, former editor-in-chief of Video Business magazine. Hettrick will write a blog, interview filmmakers such as Jerry Bruckheimer about the format and aggregate news and reviews on high-def from around the Web.

The site seeks to appeal to both the early adopters watching the high-def format wars and more mainstream users who haven’t yet picked a side or may not even be aware that there are two sides.

“A lot of the companies that are supporting Blu-ray got together and decided to do something different and more credible than a promotional Web site,” Hettrick said of the site, which went live today. “Everybody takes those with a grain of salt.”

Hettrick said he plans to address issues facing Blu-ray studios and has been promised access to executives that otherwise might not comment.

But he is solidly in the Blu-ray camp.

“From a marketing and industry support standpoint, I think that they really have a far better chance of being successful,” he said.