Studios Form HD DVD Association

July 11, 2006 World Screen

LAS VEGAS, July 11: At the Video Software Dealers
Association conference today, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Warner Home
Video, Paramount Home Entertainment, HP, Intel, Microsoft and Toshiba announced
the formation of the North American HD DVD Promotional Group.

The non-profit trade organization will promote the
companies' common interests in the success of HD DVDs and educate consumers on
the quality and value of the technology. The group’s first initiative is an
advertising and marketing campaign unveiled today promoting HD DVDs as
"The Look and Sound of Perfect". The members of the organization will
contribute some $150 million towards the trade and consumer press campaign that
will run through the 2006 Holiday season and into 2007. The marketing
initiative will run across television, print, online and outdoor, marketing
both HD DVD hardware and HD DVD titles. Further, the HD DVD Mobile Experience
begins its nationwide tour this summer.

"Following this spring's market introduction, we're now
adding advertising and marketing muscle to HD DVD to demonstrate our full
commitment to bring consumers the best in high definition entertainment,"
said Craig Kornblau, the president of Universal Studios Home Entertainment. "Surveys
are showing that HD DVD is already the number-1 recognized brand name for high
definition packaged media. In addition, the continued support from Hollywood,
CE and IT industries will make HD DVD a true win for consumers this Holiday
season."

Yoshihide Fujii, the chairman of the HD DVD Promotion Group,
added, "More and more consumers are buying large-screen high definition
TVs, and their expectations for better, more realistic picture quality is
increasing. The wide-ranging activities of the new group will take HD DVD into
the homes of people across North America, and make it crystal clear that HD DVD
is the future in movies, home entertainment, computing and gaming."

The other high-definition DVD format available for consumers
is Blu-Ray, which has been heavily backed by Sony.