Formal Ultra HD Blu-ray Licensing To Launch Aug. 24, BDA Says

Licensing of the next-gen Ultra HD Blu-ray format will formally launch Aug. 24, the Blu-ray Disc Association said in a Wednesday announcement. The start of licensing comes roughly three months after the BDA announced that work on the Ultra HD Blu-ray spec was completed (see 1505120025). The delay between the spec's completion and the start of licensing activities was to allow enough time for licensing documents to be drawn up, the BDA said. But availability of the specs in mid-May gave manufacturers the green light to begin designing products to those specs, to introduce goods in time for the holiday selling season, it said. Ultra HD Blu-ray “will enable consistent and reliable delivery of Ultra HD content” to Ultra HD TV homes, which are expected to grow to 95.6 million globally in 2019 from 11.7 million in 2014, the BDA said, citing IHS projections. The BDA is confident the next-gen format “will set the standard for Ultra HD entertainment,” much as Blu-ray did for HD viewing, said Victor Matsuda, the Sony executive who chairs the BDA’s global promotions committee.