The Blu-ray Disc Association said in a statement it was "obviously very happy" with the Disney decision to opt for its new technology format.

"We are excited to be able to draw from their vast and entertaining portfolio of content," the group said in the statement issued in California.

The house that made Mickey Mouse and its home video unit Buena Vista Home Entertainment (BVHE) announced Wednesday they would adopt Sony's Blu-ray Disc format, putting Disney at odds with an array of studios supporting the HD-DVD technology of Toshiba.

Under the tie-up with Sony for the next generation of video disc players, Disney and BVHE will release their movies in the Blu-ray format when it launches in North America and Japan late next year although this will be done on a non-exclusive basis.

Top electronics makers are divided between the two formats of next-generation DVDs, which are not convertible with each other at present or in the foreseeable future.

The technology war is similar to the one that erupted in the late 1970s when home videocassette players hit the market. By the 1980s, customers who had gambled on the Sony-developed Betamax had to switch to VHS which triumphed and became the standard.

This time around, Sony has teamed up with Matsushita Electric Industrial, which won the videocassette war with the VHS format. Toshiba has computer giant NEC on its side.

DVDs, or digital versatile discs, are well on the way to globally conquering videocassettes less than a decade after hitting the market as consumers take to collecting them in the same way as music CDs.

All rights reserved. copyright 2018 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.