Audio Video News

Lions Gate Home Entertainment (LGHE), a division of Lions Gate Entertainment, announced last Wednesday that it will release content on the Blu-ray Disc format. As part of its cooperation with the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), LGHE will begin releasing new films, TV programming, and other titles from the company's vast library when Blu-ray hardware launches in North America.

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 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 include 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.

LGHE's decision to support and publish on Blu-ray is the result of many factors, including the recently announced copy protection measures (see related news story) and progress made by DVD replicators toward proving that the format can be manufactured in a mass-production environment for an acceptable cost. In addition, the studio was enticed by the expected impact on high-definition packaged media from the upcoming launch of the Sony PlayStation3 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 Steve Beeks, president of Lions Gate Entertainment. "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 [as well as] the demonstrated manufacturability and acceptable cost proposition, made it the perfect choice for Lions Gate at this time."

The Lions Gate announcement follows another recent addition to the Blu-ray family: Universal Music Group (UMG), which announced last week that it had joined the BDA as a contributing member. The addition of UMG to the BDA's current lineup of more than 140 companies in the hardware, software, consumer electronics, and information technology industries is expected to have a major impact on how music is created and enjoyed by consumers.

"The delivery of both high-definition video and multi-channel audio technologies is becoming increasingly important," stated Larry Kenswil, president of eLabs, UMG's new media and technologies division. "We recognize that Blu-ray Disc has the capacity, functionality, and interactivity both artists and music fans demand. We intend to work closely with the BDA in order to represent the unique requirements of the music industry in the format-creation process."

"Universal Music Group is the latest in a continually growing list of companies that have told us Blu-ray Disc's capacity and functionality are important to the growth of their future business," said Brian Zucker, Blu-ray spokesperson and technology strategist at Dell. "In collaboration with the world's leading technology and content companies, we are on track to launch a complete high-definition format that is a quantum leap in innovation and delivers a dramatic new consumer experience in all areas of home entertainment—movies, music and games."