Company:
Columbia/TriStar. AUSTRALIA’S
DVD CHRISTMAS BOOM Australians are converting to DVD at a historically, rapid rate. No other home entertainment technology including colour TV,
VCRs or CDs has enjoyed this same pace of growth, said Michele
Garra,
Managing Director of leading DVD distributors, Columbia TriStar Home
Video. Prior
to Christmas l999, media, marketing and industry experts predicted
that the new home entertainment experience would be big, however,
they never predicted it would be this big.
Record DVD software sales over December and January document
Australia’s DVD explosion. By
the end of last year, player penetration had reached in excess of
100,000 Australian homes, 1,000,000 software units had been sold and
over 720 titles were available on the market.
Australia is on track to follow the United States’ DVD
trend where in the week ending January 9, DVD sales equated to 25
per cent of VHS sales! Key
industry player, Columbia TriStar Home Video, who has fully embraced
the technology of DVD software from the start, are now enjoying the
benefits of this burgeoning market. Over a ten-month period, Columbia’s own DVD sales have
multiplied ten fold with over 73,000 discs shipped in December 1999
alone. Michele
Garra, Managing Director of Columbia TriStar Home Video, said In
an incredibly short time frame, DVD has exceeded our wildest
expectations. The
public want outstanding quality in their home entertainment and they
are particularly responding to the special features included with
the movies. I don’t
think it is a novelty, I think they are in love with DVD, continued
Ms Garra. DVD
enthusiasts and industry players are unanimous in the superiority of
the DVD product. Titles
from the Columbia TriStar DVD range, for example, include recent big
screen hits, together with unique extra features along side stunning
visuals and digital sound. Columbia
TriStar is also Australia’s distributor for Universal Studios’
DVD titles which includes such popular, contemporary classics as Shakespeare
In Love and this week’s American
Pie. The success of the DVD Usergroup website, which was set up through a collaboration of all key industry hardware and software players and is sponsored by Columbia TriStar, is further proof of DVD’s growing popularity. On a weekly basis, over 40,000 pages are viewed by DVDUsergroup members. |