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Price cut to save HD-DVD?
15/01/2008 14:02 - (SA)
David B Wilkerson
Chicago - Determined to ensure HD-DVD remains a viable alternative in the high-definition DVD marketplace, Toshiba Corp said on Monday it plans to jumpstart its marketing campaign for the format via price cuts and a greater emphasis on television, print and online advertising.
Toshiba, the Japanese technology giant, and Microsoft Corp back the HD-DVD standard, which competes with Sony's Blu-ray format.
Sony scored a major coup earlier this month when Warner Bros Entertainment said it would release all of its high-definition DVDs in the Blu-ray format beginning in May, after issuing the discs in both formats for the past two years.
At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week, Sony boasted that Blu-ray outsold HD-DVD by nearly a two-to-one margin in the US last year, and has become the preferred format in Europe by a ratio of nearly three to one.
Warner Bros, Sony Pictures, Walt Disney Studios and Twentieth Century Fox are among the studios that have chosen to go with Blu-ray as their high-definition DVD standard. Twentieth Century Fox is owned by News Corp, which is also the parent of MarketWatch, the publisher of this report.
Facing a difficult battle, Toshiba says it plans to energise its ad campaign to help raise consumer awareness of HD-DVD. It plans to work with its dealers and studio partners, including Paramount Pictures, Universal Home Video and DreamWorks Animation SKG, on joint marketing and promotion projects.
One current promotion allows customers to choose five free HD-DVD titles with the purchase of a Toshiba HD-DVD player.
Toshiba will also drop the manufacturer's suggested retail price of its players.
"While price is one of the consideration elements for the early adopter, it is a deal-breaker for the mainstream consumer," said Yoshi Uchiyama, group vice president at Toshiba's Digital A/V Group.
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