HD DVD Establishes Promotional Group in Europe

Leading Content, Consumer Electronics and Information Technology Companies Unveil New HD DVD Marketing Organization focused on the EU

HANNOVER, Germany, March 15 - At a press conference at CeBIT 2007, Studio Canal, Universal, Toshiba and Microsoft were on stage to announce the formation of a new trade organization, the European HD DVD Promotional Group, Ltd., which will include movie studios, distributors, consumer electronics companies, IT companies, PC makers, disc replication companies and authoring houses companies throughout Europe and around the globe. As the European counterpart to the North American HD DVD Promotional Group and working with the HD DVD Promotion Group originally organized in Japan, the new non-profit organization completes the global promotion structure for HD DVD, working to educate consumers on the quality and value of the format.

"After a strong year in North America and Asia, HD DVD is drawing attention in Europe, with unrivaled quality and affordable prices," said Ken Graffeo, Executive Vice President, HD Strategic Marketing, Universal Studios Home Entertainment. "HD DVD is the most recognized brand name worldwide for high definition packaged media and we now have a strong group of companies behind it, from hardware manufacturers to studios and distributors."

The existing marketing campaign, which showcases HD DVD as "The Look and Sound of Perfect(TM)" will be used to highlight European perspectives, with the launch of country-specific pages to the http://www.hddvdeurope.com/ website. The group and its member companies plan to back the campaign with promotions, and trade and consumer marketing through the 2007 Holiday season and into 2008. The campaign will promote the format and co-market HD DVD hardware with the more than 300 HD DVD titles already on the market today and the more than 600 expected on store shelves by year-end 2007.