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News in Brief

MOSER Baer CEO said that about 20 million films are sold on legitimate DVDs in India per annum, while some 600 million copies are pirated versions. The latest film Peepli Live was released last Friday and was available in pirated DVDs by Saturday morning. India is likely to impose anti-dumping duty of up to $50 per 1,000 pieces on cheap imports of DVDs from Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam to protect the domestic industry.

GROWTH of Web-to-TV video is happening faster than most people expected. By 2014, there will be 57 million US broadband households viewing full-length online video on the TV, says In-Stat. Revenue associated with this web-to-TV video content will grow from $2 billion to over $17 billion over a five-year period.

CONSUMER transactions for prerecorded video content (DVDs, Blu-ray Discs, and digital delivery) grew 2.8% to 3.5 billion during 2009, the Entertainment Merchants Association stated in its latest report Discs & Digital – The Business of Home Entertainment Retailing. Combined DVD and Blu-ray Disc sales totaled $17.9 billion in 2009, nine times the revenue generated by digital distribution channels, and 80% to 90% of paid video game software acquisitions were on physical media.

THE number of Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) certified Blu-ray Disc players nearly doubled in the first half of 2010, according to the group. The group's 245 members, which include consumer electronics, computer and mobile device manufacturers alongside component and software developers, now produce 105 DLNA certified BD enabled devices. The DLNA seeks to promote interoperability between CE devices through establishing industry standards.

HONG KONG filmmakers claim to be shooting the world’s first 3D pornographic movie – 3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy – scheduled for release in May 2011 release. In addition to distribution throughout Asia, the Sunday Morning Post reports that the film crew has already received calls from Europe and the US. Japanese porn stars Yukiko Suo and Saori Hara are confirmed as the leads in the upcoming flick, apparently based on The Carnal Prayer Mat, a classic erotic Chinese tale.

SONIC Solutions reported a year-on-year reduction in its net loss from $1.8 million to $1.1 million for the first quarter despite increased operating costs. The company said that revenue was flat at $25.4 million in the term ending June 30 but operating expenses increased by $300,000 following the acquisition of digital media company DivX earlier this year. Sonic said its RoxioNow film download software contributed $5 million to the business, up from $3.1 million in 2009.

GERMAN DVD/BD replication line manufacturer Singulus recorded order intakes worth €67.4 million in the first half of this year – an increase of 65.2% compared with the first half of 2009. The company announced sales of BLULINE II machines to the UK's VDC Group, Australia's Regency Media and Japan's Memory-Tech – the country's largest independent replicator. Singulus claims to have a 90% share of the Blu-ray line market.

ONE in five renters of home entertainment in the US pirated content in the last half of 2009 and 25% said they burned at least one copy of Blu-ray Disc, according to a poll 2,000 consumers by the Diffusion Group. Most respondents reported they give up trying to pirate content within 30 minutes if it’s not efficient, and 84% said they would still buy or rent the content they were attempting to obtain illegally, Home Media Magazine said.

REDBOX has announced more than half of its daily movie rental kiosks will begin offering Blu-ray movies for just $1.50 per night starting immediately. The company announced 13,300 kiosks across the US will offer Blu-ray movies, and a full roll out for all 23,000 kiosks should begin sometime in the fall. Just two months ago, the company celebrated the creation of 25,000 Redbox kiosks with Flextronics, its manufacturing partner.