DEG ANNOUNCES SUPPORT FOR HD TECHNOLOGIES AT CES 2006

Industry Group Honors the Industry’s Best:
Presents Awards for 2005’s Best DVD Titles and
Most Innovative Consumer Electronics Products

Best Buy and TARGET Honored as Industry’s Top Retailers

    

      LAS VEGAS (Jan. 6, 2006) – DEG: The Digital Entertainment Group held its annual reception during the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) to announce its support of HD technologies and award top honors for digital entertainment products and retailers.

DEG Retailer of the Year Award
     Two retailer awards were established to recognize excellence in merchandising and promoting both new digital entertainment products and DVD titles during the past year. Once the votes from the DEG membership were tallied, one retailer won for both categories, with Best Buy being named DEG’s Retailer of the Year for 2004.

     The content providers (studios’ home video divisions and music companies) commended Best Buy’s dedication to creating promotions, contests and premiums to generate heightened consumer awareness around DVD title releases. The Group’s hardware members (consumer electronics and IT companies) agreed that Best Buy has continued to lead the industry in consumer education of new entertainment technologies through demonstration of products, promotions and key advertising.

     “It is a true testament to Best Buy’s accomplishments in the DVD industry that has earned them this honor from both our hardware and software members,” said Bob Chapek, president, DEG: The Digital Entertainment Group and president, Buena Vista Home Entertainment. “They have been very effective in reaching consumers and helping to shape the overall business as the industry evolves.”

Emiel N. Petrone Digital Innovation Awards
      In memory of the DEG’s founding Chairman Emiel N. Petrone who passed away in 2004, the DEG membership created three awards to acknowledge the year’s most outstanding new digital entertainment products in the categories of SIGHT, SOURCE and SOUND.

     “Throughout Emiel’s career, he was at the forefront of new product launches, helping to excite the trade and consumers about the many possibilities of digital entertainment,” said Steve Einhorn, secretary, DEG and president, New Line Home Entertainment. “These three products demonstrate that vision by melding superior applications of the latest technological developments with existing core elements of the home theater environment.”

     Selected by a panel of key product reviewers from the industry’s home theater enthusiast publications, the following three products were awarded with the top honors:

Emiel N. Petrone Digital Innovation Award for SIGHT

Sony Qualia 004 SXRD Projector

Emiel N. Petrone Digital Innovation Award for SOURCE

Pioneer Elite DV-59AVI DVD Player

Emiel N. Petrone Digital Innovation Award for SOUND

Denon AVR-5805 Receiver

DEG Creative Excellence Awards
     The DEG also awarded five honors to acknowledge Creative Excellence in DVD titles released in calendar 2004. The judging panel, nominated by the motion picture studio and music company members of the DEG, consisted of DVD reviewers and industry reporters from trade, entertainment and daily consumer news organizations. In addition to overall sound and picture quality, all titles were considered for those features that best demonstrate the value-added nature of the DVD format.

The DEG Creative Excellence Award Winners:

Theatrical DVD Title of the Year (full length motion pictures that were originally released for theatrical viewing)

Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Extended Edition DVD
New Line Home Entertainment

Catalog DVD Title of the Year (DVD titles of a full-length theatrical film, as exhibited theatrically or in an enhanced version, released on DVD more than 18 months from its original theatrical release date)

Gone with the Wind: Collector’s Edition
Warner Home Video

TV on DVD Title of the Year (full-length programming that originally was broadcast on television)

Seinfeld: Seasons 1-2
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

Direct to DVD Title of the Year (full-length programming that premiered on video)

The Lion King 1 ½
Buena Vista Home Entertainment

Music on DVD Title of the Year (full length music productions that have been designed or repurposed for either DVD-Video or DVD-Audio)

Bon Jovi – This Left Feels Right: Live
Universal Music Group

      DEG: the Digital Entertainment Group (formerly the DVD Entertainment Group) is a Los Angeles-based, industry-funded nonprofit corporation that advocates and promotes the many benefits associated with DVD while providing updated information regarding the format to both the media and the retail trade. The DEG offers a forum for member companies to engage in ongoing discussions concerning various issues and opportunities, which relate to other new digital technologies that may emerge in the future.

     Regular members of the DEG are Anchor Bay Entertainment, Buena Vista Home Entertainment, DreamWorks Home Entertainment, D&M Holdings, DTS Entertainment, EMI Recorded Music, GoodTimes Entertainment, Hewlett Packard, Hitachi, Image Entertainment, JVC Company of America, Lions Gate Entertainment, MGM Home Entertainment, New Line Home Entertainment, Panasonic Consumer Electronics, Paramount Home Entertainment, Philips Consumer Electronics, Pioneer Electronics (USA), Sony Electronics, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, S ony Pictures Home Entertainment, Thomson, Toshiba America Consumer Products, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Universal Music Group, Universal Studios Home Entertainment and Warner Home Video.

     Associate members are Alta Resources, Blink Digital, Broadcast Text, Deluxe Media Services, InterActual Technologies, Macrovision, Sonopress, Sony DADC, Technicolor and Universal Operations Group.

     Interested consumers can reach DEG at (310) 888-2201, via e-mail at getinfo@digitalentertainmentinfo.com or through its web site at www.digitalentertainmentinfo.com .