In news that has shocked the already rocky state of today’s DVD industry, the Walt Disney Company yesterday announced that it intends to back Sony’s high-def Blu-Ray format in the upcoming war between two competing technologies. The DVD Forum, the association which developed and oversees the current DVD standard, is in preference toward Toshiba’s HD-DVD format, which counts studios such as Warner Bros. (a co-developer of the DVD standard), Universal/DreamWorks and Paramount, in their alliance. On the other side, and despite negotiations and pleas from the Forum to unify and agree on one standard to avoid a format war, is Sony’s proprietary hardware, on which the Studio will release its Columbia/Tri-Star product and was the basis of the recent bidding battle with Warners for the MGM Studio and their huge library of films. With Disney, the consistently industry-leading home video supplier, on their side, Sony will now see little reason not to go ahead with their own format, whether the DVD Forum, or consumers themselves (who could face having to buy titles on competing discs), like it or not. 20th Century Fox is the only major studio not to have made a decision yet, though has also shown a leaning towards Sony’s Blu-Ray. Further reading about Disney’s statement can be found in the story “Mouse Develops A Taste For Blu-cheese” at the Video Business site.