Amazon.com is flexing its muscle with an offer to shoulder risks ...

DVD formats, and at CES pledged its CustomFlix Labs subsidiary would assist studios large and small in getting next-gen blue laser titles to Amazon’s customer base. The e-tailer put substance behind the brag Tues., announcing CustomFlix will provide archiving, replication and distribution support to studios wishing to issue content in the Blu-ray, HD DVD and Microsoft’s Windows Media Video High Definition DVD (WMV-HD DVD) formats. Amazon said its CustomFlix Future-Proof Archive service, a proprietary storage and repurposing platform, was designed to allow deployment of digitized files in future formats, thereby giving content providers the flexibility and convenience of distributing content in whatever format Amazon’s customers choose. The up-side for content companies is they needn’t risk investment in replicating, stockpiling and distributing inventory during the hard-to-predict launches among the warring formats. Instead, studios can entrust their HD masters to CustomFlix, which will take consumers’ orders for the content online, and replicate the discs on an as-needed basis and fulfill the orders. “By supporting all of the high definition formats, CustomFlix enables content providers to take a format-neutral position and simply let customers decide which format they prefer,” said Dana LoPiccolo-Giles, CustomFlix co-founder and managing dir. “Many content providers are taking a cautious approach to HD due to the high costs of pressing discs in multiple high definition formats, plus they risk inventory obsolescence once a winning format emerges. CustomFlix offers a format-agnostic solution to eliminate that risk and accelerate HD release schedules.” At our deadline, it wasn’t clear what financial arrangements CustomFlix was offering the content owners -- or what arrangements CustomFlix had made for disc-replication in the various formats. In an earlier announcement Tues., Amazon said “For a limited time, CustomFlix will offer digitization and DVD authoring of qualified content with no up-front investment by the content provider. Amazon.com will then make this content available for sale to tens of millions of Amazon customers and CustomFlix will manufacture DVDs on demand as customers place orders.” At our deadline, CustomFlix announced its first customer for the program: entrepreneur Mark Cuban’s HDNet, which has been pumping out independent productions through its network and cinema affiliates. “As the first national television network to broadcast all of our programming in the highest quality format of High Definition TV, HDNet has a deep commitment to helping HD become the new viewing standard both in broadcast and on DVD,” Cuban said Tues. “Unfortunately, the disparate HD formats will make establishing a single standard difficult and result in customer confusion. CustomFlix allows customers interested in HD content to simply choose whatever format they want… [It] was an easy decision for HDNet because discs are produced as customers order, so there won’t be any wasted inventory depending on which format becomes more popular for a specific title.” Amazon said titles handled by CustomFlix would be available for shipment within 24 hours after customers order them, and eligible for Amazon’s “Prime” and free “Super Saver” shipping.