Five Years of DVD

Cannes 21 May, 2003 - Commemorating the DVD format’s highly popular first five years in the marketplace, the DVD Entertainment Group Europe (DEGE) has released some ‘DVD at Five’ celebratory facts and figures.

The DVD phenomenon shows little sign of abating as increasing sales for both DVD software and hardware across Europe have confirmed its position as the home entertainment medium of customer choice (there was a 64% increase in software titles sold in Western Europe during January-March 2003 compared to the same quarter last year, according to GfK).

DVD is the fastest selling consumer technology of all time and these DVD Top Five Facts* prove it:
1. Sales of DVDs in Western Europe were nearly 3 times greater than sales of music CDs at the equivalent point in their history
2. After just 5 years on the market, the number of DVDs sold in Western Europe will actually overtake sales of pre-recorded VHS cassettes this year
3. Spending on DVD software has already overtaken spending on VHS software. VHS software spending in Western Europe last year (2002) totalled 3.5bn Euros compared to 5.5bn Euros spent on DVD
4. European DVD player owners are buying more than 3 times as many discs as VCR owners bought tapes at the peak of the VHS tape business
5. The number of DVDs sold grew by over 100 per cent last year in Europe

“DVD has revolutionised the home entertainment market. It is also giving life back to many movies with a number of classic films being restored and released on DVD,” said Jeff Brown, President, DVD Entertainment Group Europe and Senior Vice-President, Co-Managing Director, Europe, Middle East and Africa, at Warner Bros.

According to a pan-European consumer survey conducted by the National Research Group** the Top Five DVD Attributes are:
1. Picture quality
2. Sound quality
3. Special features available,
4. Durability of DVD discs
5. DVD disc size.