European DVD Market Sluggish
While the U.S. DVD market continues to strengthen, Europeans are grappling with the basics of getting DVD-Video off the ground. The market has been slow to develop since its ""official"" launch there in the second quarter of 1998. Estimates are that the European DVD market is about 24 months behind the U.S. One of the primary issues is pricing of both software and hardware. In contrast to the U.S. market, in which DVD-Video titles are typically discounted at 10 percent or more, discounting of DVD titles is practically unheard of. Numerous retail stores in the U.K., for example, reportedly sell DVD-Video titles at a price about $5 above the suggested retail price. Then too, the average DVD-Video player in Europe costs about $800, versus about $400 in the U.S. Different DVD Markets ñ Europe Vs. U.S. - Source: Screen Digest and DVD Report DVD-Video Installed Base - Europe Year Units 1998 125,000 1999 485,000 2000 1.1 million Source: Screen Digest