DVD Entertainment Group Announces Agenda For 2003

DVD Recording And Music On DVD Top Focus

7-Feb-03

The DVD Entertainment Group (DEG) Board of Directors announced that it would focus this year on promoting consumer awareness for DVD recording and music on DVD. Meeting at the International Consumer Electronics Show, the DEG Board of Directors agreed unanimously that the future for DVD lies with the increasing utilization of DVD as a total lifestyle medium. With a variety of DVD recorders being marketed by consumer electronics companies (including models with hard disk drives, solid-state media slots, and network connectivity), there is an increased retail focus on this category. Consequently, the DEG will design programs that educate consumers about how DVD provides recording applications while protecting prerecorded content from unauthorized use. In addition to DVD recording's superior picture quality, the group's marketing messages will include multi-program capability, fast access time, reliable storage media, non-linear recording, camcorder friendliness, and read/write capability. Joe Stinziano, General Manager of Home Video, Sony Electronics will chair the DVD Recording Committee. Jodi Sally, Director of Marketing, Toshiba America Consumer Products will serve as co-chair. Another DEG focus for 2003 is music on DVD--one of the hottest growth areas for DVD hardware and software. DVD concert-length videos, music video singles, and DVD-Audio dramatically increased in popularity during 2002, due to the collectability and added features that are an ideal match for music enthusiasts. The DEG Board of Directors announced plans to create and implement trade and consumer outreach programs to communicate the benefits of music on DVD, whether live concert footage on DVD-Video or exciting high-resolution, multichannel surround recordings on DVD-Audio. John Beug, Senior Vice President, Film/Video, Production & Marketing, Warner Strategic Marketing will chair the DVD-Audio Committee. There are currently more than 2,000 DVD music video titles available from top artists. There are approximately 300 DVD-Audio titles available in the U.S. and more than 500 worldwide. A steady flow of DVD-Audio titles is anticipated for release in 2003, with an estimated 250 titles coming to retail throughout the year. Most DVD-Audio titles are comparable in price with CD titles. More than 50 DVD-Audio-capable hardware models are currently available from 12 leading manufacturers. Products are available from $250 and offer a variety of models from set-top and portable players to car models and home theatre-in-a-box systems. According to figures compiled by the DVD Entertainment Group, based on data from the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), retailers, and manufacturers, there are more than 40 million DVD households. More than 10 million homes have two or more DVD players. And, there are currently more than 95 million DVD playback devices in American homes, including set-top players, DVD-ROM drives, and DVD-capable video game machines. The DEG estimates that DVD players will be in 55 million--more than half--of U.S. homes by the end of 2003. There are nearly 20,000 DVD movies and music video titles currently available. There are now more than 250 DVD player models marketed under 60 different consumer electronics brands. DVD players are available at most consumer electronics retailers and have become the focal point of the home theatre category. There are also an expanding variety of DVD players available, with home theatre-in-a-box systems, car players, DVD-Video/Audio combination players, portables, recordable units, and TV/DVD combination systems, all growing in popularity. The DVD Entertainment Group is a Los Angeles-based, industry-funded, nonprofit corporation that advocates and promotes the benefits of DVD-Video and DVD-Audio, and provides updated information to the media and the retail trade about DVD players and titles. The DEG also provides a platform where home entertainment companies come together to analyze, evaluate, and discuss current, emerging, and future technologies and formats for the home entertainment market. Interested consumers can reach the DVD Entertainment Group at www.dvdinformation.com.

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