According to International Herald Tribune one of the main reasons for Sony's recent purchase of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) for about $ 5 billion is to assure the success of the Blu-ray Disc format. Content support from Hollywood will likely be crucial in the Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD format fight and with the buy of MGM Sony gets a catalog of about 4100 movie titles including the James Bond franchise. This makes Sony the owner of the world's largest film library with about 7600 titles or about 40 % of all movies ever produced in Hollywood.

"It further tips scales that were already tipped toward Blu-ray," said Ross Rubin, a consumer electronics analyst at the NPD Group.   Executives close to Sony said that bolstering its position in the battle of DVD formats was one of several important factors in its decision to pursue MGM. Indeed, the management of Sony of America helped sell the idea of bidding for MGM to its Japanese parent in some early internal meetings by promoting "the Blu-ray angle," the executives said. … Sony, though, faces several risks in buying MGM. By building a large film library, which makes up an estimated 17 percent of available film titles, Sony could end up threatening the same studios it is trying to win over to the Blu-ray group. Sony, intentionally or not, may give the appearance that it is willing to start producing Blu-ray discs on its own, regardless of what the HD DVD group does, or what the studios want.

More information is available at International Herald Tribune here and CNN Money here.

Source: International Herald Tribune