The toughest job in the world must be HD-DVD's PR bunny! According to reports from the Financial Times, movie studio Paramount could drop the beleagued HD-DVD format and side with Blu-Ray. This would leave Universal left as the only studio to exclusively support HD-DVD.

The report in the FT said that the studio has a clause in its contract, exclusive to HD-DVD until the end of this year, to swap sides following the news that Warner Bros has withdrawn support for the Toshiba-backed format.

There is also some speculation that other film companies could follow suit, namely companies with close ties to Paramount. Should the speculation pan out this would mean that 70 per cent of movies would be released on the Blu-ray format.

But other reports, this time from Bloomberg, report that Paramount will continue to support HD-DVD. "Paramount's current plan is to continue to support the HD DVD format,'' Brenda Ciccone, a spokeswoman for Paramount told Bloomberg. Toshiba also dismissed the report as "speculative".

FT news story here (subscription required).

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