DVD Forum Celebrates 10th Anniversary

    TOKYO, February 28 - The DVD Forum, the international organization
that defines formats for DVD products and technologies, today celebrated its
official 10th anniversary at the annual general meeting of its members held in
Tokyo. The Forum, which has been hailed as a model for collaboration between
the consumer electronics, IT and entertainment industries, was founded in
August 1997, to assume and extend the work of the DVD Consortium, the
ten-company organization that initially developed the DVD format. When it
started its work in developing the DVD format and promoting its widespread
dissemination, the DVD Forum could count 86 members. Today, it has about 220
member companies, drawn from all over the world.

    The launch of DVD was one of the most successful consumer product
launches in history. An immediate hit with consumers around the world, DVD
brought new and exciting capabilities to home entertainment, computing and
gaming, and created an immense global market: 2006 demand for DVD players and
recorders stood at over 110 million units(1), and reached about 290 million
units for DVD drives(2). In the same year, 1.7 billion DVD movie discs were
shipped in the North America(3), while shipments of recordable discs climbed
to 5.1 billion discs globally(4).

    This extraordinary success rests on the concerted efforts and long-term
support of the DVD Forum. The Forum assured the versatility and wide-ranging
applicability of DVD by defining key specifications that met diverse needs,
including those for DVD-ROM, DVD-Video, DVD-R, DVD-RAM, DVD-Audio, DVD-RW, and
DVD-Video Recording(5). The Forum continues to define the future for DVD, and
is now promoting development of HD DVD, the next generation DVD format --
based on blue laser -- and working on the development of an integrated
networking environment -- extending DVD formats to adapt to the expanding
online world.

    The DVD Forum will continue to benefit consumers -- and promote the
growth and vitality of the consumer electronics, IT and entertainment
industries -- by contributing to the usefulness and versatility of DVD
technologies and adding new functions, including downloading to DVD format
recordable discs.

    (Please visit http://www.dvdforum.org/37scmtg-resolution.htm for the
latest resolutions of the DVD Forum Steering Committee Meeting.).

    (1) Source: Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries
Association (JEITA)

    (2) Source: TECHNO SYSTEMS RESEARCH CO., LTD. (TSR)

    (3) Source: Digital Entertainment Group

    (4) Source: JAPAN RECORDING-MEDIA INDUSTRIES ASSOCIATION (JRIA)

    (5) in order of release of specifications

    For further information on DVD Forum, please visit
http://www.dvdforum.org/forum.shtml