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Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Announces Availability of Blu-Ray Disc Titles Internationally

Posted on: Thursday, 31 August 2006, 12:00 CDT

BERLIN and CULVER CITY, Calif., IFA, Aug. 31 /PRNewswire/ -- Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (SPHE) President, David Bishop, today announced the company is expanding its distribution of Blu-ray Disc (BD) titles beyond the United States and Canada. The international rollout will begin this Fall to coincide with the first availability of Blu-ray hardware in territories including Europe, Japan, Australia and Korea.

"We stand behind the superiority of Blu-ray as the preeminent high-definition optical disc format and are committed to delivering a strong slate of Blu-ray titles to entertainment enthusiasts worldwide," said Mr. Bishop.

SPHE's first slate of BD titles is set to launch in October and includes a broad mix of new releases and catalogue titles including Hitch, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, RV, The Fifth Element, Hostel, A Knight's Tale, S.W.A.T., Tears of the Sun, Underworld Evolution and Ultraviolet among others. SPHE will debut BD titles in countries including Australia, Japan, Korea, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Holland, the Nordic countries, Spain and the United Kingdom.

"With the explosive growth of high-definition displays in the international marketplace, the timely introduction of the Blu-ray Disc format will provide consumers with significant amounts of content, of unrivaled quality, to maximize the potential of their high-definition entertainment systems," Mr. Bishop added.

Regarding pricing of international SPHE Blu-ray content, Adrian Alperovich, Senior Executive Vice President, International, said: "Pricing of Blu-ray titles will be commensurate in each country with pricing of DVD at launch."

For additional information regarding individual territory announcements please contact the SPHE worldwide press office below.

About Blu-ray Disc:

The Blu-ray Disc format provides nearly five times more data storage than DVD, with an unprecedented 25 GB (single-layer) and 50 GB (dual-layer) of capacity. Blu-ray Disc players are backward compatible with other disc formats and deliver the highest quality high-definition (HD) entertainment, while providing a secure playback environment through the use of the most advanced copy protection available.

Blu-ray Disc was created to support the accelerating convergence between consumer electronics and information technology. The platform can also support numerous film, music, computer and game applications. Sony Computer Entertainment recently announced plans to utilize BD-ROM technology in their next-generation Playstation 3 system.

Blu-ray is supported by more than 170 leading hardware and software manufacturers, including the leading innovators in the CE and IT industries.

About Sony Pictures Home Entertainment:

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is a division of Sony Corporation of America, a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Sony Corporation. Sony Pictures Entertainment's global operations encompass motion picture production and distribution; television production and distribution; digital content creation and distribution; worldwide channel investments; home entertainment acquisition and distribution; operation of studio facilities; development of new entertainment products, services and technologies; and distribution of filmed entertainment in 67 countries. Information on Sony Pictures Entertainment and Blu-ray can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.sonypictures.com/bluray.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

CONTACT: Claire McKittrick of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment,+1-310-244-4722, claire_mckittrick@spe.sony.com

Web site: http://www.sonypictures.com/bluray

Source: PRNewswire

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