DVD's sell over 8 million units!

"Over 8 million DVD's (players/recorders) have been sold in Australia from Jan03-Jul06, which easily makes it the biggest selling category in consumer electronics.

The total sales of DVD Recorders has reached over 700,000 units. In 2005 sales of DVD Recorders reached 285,000 for the calendar year, so far in 2006 already over 250,000 units have sold. Comparing Jan-July 05 vs 06 based on units the growth is 280%, with the total value of the market being $400m.

Similar to other consumer electronics categories the average price of DVD Recorders declined by (34%) comparing 05 vs 06, with an average price being $492.

Over 25% of all DVD Recorder sales includes a VCR component which allows consumers to record and play using both DVD and VCR technologies. This is certainly not surprising given the past success and household penetration of VCR in Australia.

Consumer research via GfK's consumer scope service, clearly shows that the sales of DVD Recorders have been in part attributed to the sales of Plasma and LCD screens. This year (Jan -July 06) DVD Recorders with a hard disk drive now account for 44% of sales and this segment of the market is continuing to show growth.

The very important and upcoming issue for DVD, will be what's going to happen when Blu Ray becomes available during late 2006"

For further information please contact:

Derek Nash                          GfK Australia                                      02 9900 2851