Audio Video News

Warner Home Video president and DVD pioneer Warren Lieberfarb abruptly departed from the company Friday, December 20. No official reason for his resignation was given, but some industry insiders alluded to his dissatisfaction with upper management at media conglomerate AOL TimeWarner.

The volatile and outspoken Lieberfarb is widely credited with ushering in the Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) as the home entertainment format of the 21st century. Warner owns several of the patents on the format, thanks to Lieberfarb's efforts, and he was instrumental in defeating Circuit City's pay-per-view DivX alternative. Lieberfarb had been with the Warner Brothers studio for 27 years, spending the last 20 making its home entertainment division one of the industry's most profitable.

The film industry was doubtful about the feasibility of DVD as a consumer format when it was first suggested almost a decade ago. Lieberfarb campaigned tirelessly within the industry and in every conceivable public forum to insure its success. He also envisioned it as a "sell-through" rather than a rental product, and pushed for DVD prices so low that movie titles would become impulse buys for consumers worldwide.

That vision has proven correct; DVD is not only the most successful consumer electronics product ever launched, but millions of film fans are now on their way to assembling durable, high-quality libraries. "He's clearly made an impact on the business. He's the guy who fought uphill to get the DVD market established, and it wouldn't be there without him," Bill Mechanic, former head of home video at Walt Disney Company, told the LA Times.

Lieberfarb's "sell-through" campaign is widely blamed for declining business at rental giant Blockbuster, which in mid-December saw its stock plunge 32% to a 52-week low on news of lowered revenue projections. Investors are wary of Blockbuster's vulnerability to the "burgeoning movie-purchase market as well as new technologies such as video-on-demand," according to a December 19 report in the Wall Street Journal.

Lieberfarb's replacement will come from within the top ranks at Warner Brothers, according to sources there. Warner CEO Barry Meyer called him "a true visionary and a world-class executive." Lieberfarb's immediate plans weren't revealed.