The MEDIA-TECH Association - the body representing the interests of independent optical disc manufacturers and associated service suppliers - will be addressing forcefully during 2012 the concerns of its members about license fees and royalty payments through two initiatives.

The first initiative aims to examine in details the 'one-stop shop' claims made by various Blu-ray licensing consortiums such as BD4C and One Blu/One Red in relation to the payment of license fees and royalties from manufacturers of the Blu-ray discs. Both consortiums claim to be holding valid patents for the format and each representing a different group of patent holders.

To the anxiety of MEDIA-TECH members, these companies left the door open to other, yet-to-appear bodies with further royalty claims on patents in relation to the BD discs. Furthermore, MEDIA-TECH says that two other consortiums, namely MPEGLA and AACS, also lay claim to fees and royalties.

These have fueled the growing concerns from replicator members over the increasing amount of claims on their disc manufacturing profits. These concerns were vividly expressed at a MEDIA-TECH meeting in Frankfurt last November, exclusively covered by DVD Intelligence (read article).

It is the intention for a MEDIA-TECH task force to speak on behalf its members directly to the licensors to help provide clarity in this complicated landscape with the view to reducing costs for the disc manufacturers. "In simple terms,"? Bryan Ekus, MEDIA-TECH Director put it, "the BD manufacturing arena requires immediate and urgent clarity on the cost of royalty and fees to be added to the material manufactured cost of the BD disc."

MEDIA-TECH's second initiative aims to set up in Europe a joint polycarbonate purchasing programme, modeled on the one successfully started in the US with Colonial Purchasing. In the fourth quarter of last year, six MEDIA-TECH member companies participated in such a programme that resulted in the price of polycarbonate to fall by approximately 20% across Europe.

"Putting our egos aside and working as a single voice has true benefits,"? says Roland Lacher, Co-founder of the association, at the 10-year anniversary celebration of the organisation last year.

MEDIA-TECH is asking its members the authority (via the attached form) to speak to the licensing groups and the suppliers of materials, together with Colonial Purchasing, on their behalf. “This will bring many tangible benefits to members of the Association,” Ekus says.

Story filed 06.02.12