Beverly Hills, Calif. - In another bad sign for Toshiba's next-generation HD DVD format, online DVD rental service Netflix (NASD: NFLX) announced on Monday that it has decided to begin exclusively stocking high-definition DVDs in Sony's (NYSE: SNE) Blu-ray format. The company has stocked both formats since early 2006, but said the decision of four of the six major movie studios to exclusively support Blu-ray influenced its decision.

"We're now at the point where the industry can pursue the migration to a single format, bring clarity to the consumer and accelerate the adoption of high-def," said Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos.

"Going forward, we expect that all of the studios will publish in the Blu-ray format and that the price points of high-def DVD players will come down significantly. These factors could well lead to another decade of disc-based movie watching as the consumer's preferred means."

Netflix said that it will phase out its current stock of HD DVD titles by around the end of the year; the service currently offers around 400 Blu-ray titles.

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