Woolworths is first retailer to drop HD-DVD

Major high street retailer Woolworths has become the UK's first major chain to announce it is to drop the in-store sale of HD-DVD discs in favour of rival format Blu-ray.

The move, which comes into effect in March, was taken after Woolworths revealed Blu-ray discs outsold HD-DVD by ten to one over Christmas.

The retailer, which began selling both Blu-ray and HD-DVD formats in October, added that it intends to continue selling HD-DVD online.

“Sales figures clearly show that the market is moving towards one format of high definition DVD,” Woolworths DVD buyer Steven McGunigel said.

"The main reason is the success of Sony’s PlayStation 3 machine. Because it plays Blu-ray discs, there are over three quarters of a million homes in the UK that can view the new high definition format. There is nowhere near that number of HD-DVD players around.

“Switching to Blu-ray only will provide one clear offer to customers in the format they want to watch high definition movies in.”

Blu-ray has been backed by Samsung, Sony, Warner, Dell, Apple, Disney, Warner Bros and 20th Century Fox, with only NES, Microsoft and Universal backing HD-DVD.