EU to look into Blu-Ray exclusivity deals

European Commission to investigate why so many content providers went for Blu-Ray over its rival HD-DVD.

The European Commission is setting up a probe into the activities of companies supporting the next generation disc format Blu-Ray in a bid to find out if the backers of the format broke EU competition rules.

A spokeswoman for competition commissioner Neelie Kroes said that the Commission is seeking information from content providers and manufacturers over their reasons for backing either Blu-Ray or its rival HD-DVD disc format. The Commission is particularly interested as to why most major film studios went for the Blu-Ray format exclusively.

"We want more information about whether the studios have arrangements with the Blu-ray format, and if so what those arrangements are," the spokeswoman told IT PRO's sister publication PC Pro.

Both formats hold much more data than DVDs. Blu-Ray discs hold 50GB of data on a dual-layer disc while its rival HD-DVD only hold 30GB of data on a dual-layer disc. Blu-Ray discs are similar to Sony's PDD discs, which are aimed at business data archiving.

According to reports from the Wall Street Journal, backers of the rival HD-DVD format, which include Toshiba, Microsoft and Intel, asked the commission to look into the tactics of members of the Blu-Ray camp, which is led by Sony.

The Commission has asked to be provided with emails, phone records and any other supporting documents related to the probe.