Blu-ray beats HD DVD in Europe

High-definition movie DVDs in the Blu-ray format have outsold the rival HD DVD standard in Europe this year, breaking the one million barrier and constituting 73 per cent of all HD movie discs sold.

Citing industry sales data, the Blu-ray disc association said in a statement on Tuesday that Blu-ray movie disc sales had topped one million units and, when counting Blu-ray gaming discs, the total number produced for sale in Europe exceeded 21 million units.

Sony's PlayStation 3 game console includes a Blu-ray Disc drive.

Hollywood and electronics manufacturers are hoping that new high-definition DVDs, with better picture quality and more capacity, will revive the slowing home DVD market.

But the launch of the next-generation DVD players has been complicated by the fact that there are two competing technologies available, Blu-ray and HD DVD.

HD DVD was developed by Toshiba while Sony backs the Blu-ray standard.

Of the high-definition movie discs bought by consumers so far this year in Europe, 73 per cent were in the Blu-ray Disc format and 27 per cent were HD DVD, according to sales data provided by Media Control Gfk International.

Blu-ray said the best-selling titles were 300, Spider-Man 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.

Home Media Research said in October Blu-ray Disc DVD titles had outsold rival HD-DVD titles by almost 2-to-1 in the first nine months of the year in the United States.

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