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Media
Information > Media DVD Coverage 
Archive
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| Updated September 21, 2004 DVD
NEWS DIGEST
1.
Kill Bill Volume 2 Miramax Home Entertainment Aug. 26 - VideoStore Online: DVD Rentals Bright Spot in the Lagging Rental Market In the first 34 weeks of 2004, consumers spent $3.77 billion renting DVDs, a 9.9% increase from the $3.43 billion that consumers spent in the comparable period last year. Although the gain fails to offset the precipitous decline in VHS revenue, which is down 49% over the same period, Video Store Magazine’s 2004 Consumer Home Entertainment Study suggests that renters have not abandoned the market. In a study of 600 DVD households, 69% said they had rented at least one DVD in the past year, and 29% of those who rent DVDs said they rent at least once a week. Overall, 40% of households surveyed that rent DVDs said they are renting more DVDs than they were last year. Two-thirds of new DVD households — those that have owned a player for less than one year — said they are renting more DVDs than they did last year, citing the availability of hardware as the primary reason for the upswing.
In response to the growing number of overweight and obese children in America, a trio from Michigan including a teacher, optometrist and athletic trainer, has created a new exercise DVD geared toward children as young as six-weeks-old. The presentation uses repetitive movements and drills based on those used by professional athletes to introduce young children to exercise. It also helps them increase aptitude for learning, develop motor skills, and improve neuromuscular coordination, hand-eye coordination and self esteem. An athletic trainer and former NFL fullback who helped develop the workouts said that exercise should start as early as possible, when children are most receptive to new things and ideas. Although 6-weeks old may seem a bit young to be teaching a child to exercise, the DVD's producer says a child's cognitive ability starts when they're born and controlled movements will help develop spacial relationships. According to the American Obesity Association, the country's population of obese children between the ages of six and 11 more than doubled between 1980 and 2000 from 7% to 15.3%. The number of overweight children more than tripled during the same time frame from 5% to 15.5%.
Selling prices have plunged 27% in a year, to $364. "People are considering it as something they want to have," a retail executive says. "By the holidays you should see DVD recorders at $199 - that was the price where DVD players took off."
Hollywood's major movie studios have sued two microchip makers, alleging they sold their products to makers of equipment that can be used to illegally copy DVDs. The suits are the latest legal action by the Motion Picture Association of America, which claims its members loose billions of dollars annually to copyright piracy. The companies being sued make chips to decode the Content Scramble System, or CSS, which is the copy-protection system used for DVDs. Their licenses require that they sell only to other CSS-licensed companies. In July a California court issued a preliminary injunction barring another company from selling its own CSS-decoding chips to unlicensed makers of DVD players.
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