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News in Brief

US RETAILER Best Buy now offers new release and catalogue Blu-ray Discs at the same price as the equivalent DVD provided customers trade in a used disc, according to a report. Home Media Magazine reported that Best Buy offers customers a $5 coupon for each DVD traded in, with a limit of five, to be used to obtain Blu-ray Discs without UltraViolet.

DUPLICO, a leading Spanish disc replicator based in Barcelona is about to end its activities, DVD Intelligence has learnt.

AS PART of US Ambassador Gary Locke's Roundtable on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Protection, the Motion Picture Association (MPA) together with major Chinese online video sites Youku, Sohu, iQiyi, and LeTV have unveiled a 'Thank You' video featuring nearly 100 of China's leading actors and filmmakers. Heeding a call from the MPA, China's film community turned out in droves to deliver personal messages of thanks to the sites' hundreds of millions of users and a call for support of legitimate online screen content - with the full backing of China's burgeoning online video industry.

SONY Pictures Home Entertainment UK announced three of the studio's hottest summer releases, Jack & Jill, The Vow and 21 Jump Street, will arrive in stores through June and July 2012 with UltraViolet digital versions of the movies included with their respective Blu-ray Discs and DVDs.

THE GLOBAL online movies market is forecast to reach $4.4 billion by the 2017. Prime growth factors instrumental in driving demand for online movies include skyrocketing popularity of movies, rising Internet penetration, increased prevalence of TV and DVD players, and higher digital downloads, says Global Industry Analysts in a new report.