Lions Gate Home Entertainment Joins Blu-ray

LGHE's decision to join the Blu-ray Disc camp for publishing to next generation optical discs marks the second major company to make this decision this week.

In the wake of yesterday’s Universal Music Group announcement, another entertainment provider said today they too would be joining the Blu-ray bandwagon. That company is Lions Gate Home Entertainment, a division of Lions Gate Entertainment.

Lions Gate Home Entertainment, in a released statement, said they would publish their catalog of titles on the next generation optical disc format. This catalog includes well known movies like Saw, Blair Witch Project, Stargate and Dirty Dancing, as well as television shows such as Saturday Night Live and Will & Grace.

LGHE said their decision to walk into the Blu-ray camp was driven by such factors as the recently announced copy protection measures as well as the expected impact of the launch of the Playstation 3, which will play Blu-ray discs.

“Lions Gate has always maintained the goal of offering the consumer the best quality product,” said Beeks. “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, the demonstrated manufacturability and acceptable cost proposition, made it the perfect choice for Lions Gate at this time.”