Indie DVD On-demand

According to Yahoo Amazon.com is starting to sell independent films in the HD DVD format through its on-demand DVD printing service.

With CustomFlix, when a customer buys a movie, it kicks off an automated process that copies the film onto a disk and puts together the packaging on the spot. The company did not provide details as to how many customers have used CustomFlix to buy on-demand DVDs, or how much an on-demand HD DVD might cost.

Amazon said it will offer Sundance Channel's "Big Ideas for a Small Planet" series via the on-demand service.

Two high-definition formats have been struggling for dominance in the market for a year: Sony's Blu-ray and the HD DVD format. Amazon is taking a position on the format by backing HD DVD for its CustomFlix endeavour. Since Amazon will waive processing fees for the first 1,000 films it accepts for production by its CustomFlix Labs I suspect that many indie film productions will be only too happy to have their films on HD DVD.