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To: BillyG who wrote (26996)	12/22/1997 8:18:00 AM
From: BillyG	Respond to of 50808

CCC Chain Stores Start Renting DVD Software December 22, 1997 (TOKYO) -- Culture Convenience Club Co., Ltd. (CCC), which operates Tsutaya, the largest rental video chain in Japan, started renting DVD software. To expand the availability of DVD titles, it secured capital participation from Toshiba Corp. and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. in Culture Publishers Inc., one of its subsidiaries, the company said. CCC aims to increase customer traffic by expanding the titles and lines in stores, and by supplying new media software. Two stores in the Tokyo area have started DVD rentals on a trial basis. And from January, 10 stores including some stores in the Kansai region will start renting DVDs. About 100 titles are available for rental. At the chain's outlet in Shinjuku, Tokyo, which has monthly sales of about 40 million yen (US$315,000), the company estimates that its monthly rentals of DVD-type software will register about 1 million yen (US$7,870) at the start. The rental charges per DVD title are between 380 yen (US$3.00) and 400 yen (US$3.10) for two days. The stores will rent DVD players as well. As of about March 1998, all 940 stores in the Tsutaya chain will begin renting DVD software. The rental shops will handle about 200 to 300 DVD titles. Toshiba and Matsushita Electric will each invest 296.25 million yen (US$2.33 million) in Culture Publishers, which will supply DVD software to CCC. The total capital of Culture Publishers is 380 million yen (US$2.99 million). Of the total additional capital to be invested by the two companies, about 300 million yen (US$2.36 million) will be set up as an investment reserve fund, and the capital of Culture Publishers will be 650 million yen (US$5.12 million). Along with their investment in Culture Publishers, both Toshiba and Matsushita Electric will cooperate when Culture Publishers releases movie titles for which it has the DVD copyright. Specifically, they will cooperate in terms of DVD authoring, encoding and the mastering press process. Toshiba and Matsushita Electric decided to support Culture Publishers and assist in increasing the distribution of DVD software in part because the DVD player market in Japan has been slow to gain momentum. Japan's DVD industry had expected that the domestic DVD player market would reach annual sales of 600,000 units by end of fiscal 1997, or as of March 1998. "Total DVD sales will be in the range of 300,000 units this fiscal year, or much lower than initial projections," said Masaichi Koga, senior executive vice president of Toshiba. Toshiba and Matsushita Electric intend to bolster the DVD market. Through their capital participation in Culture Publishers, they are seeking to expand and upgrade the DVD software lineup for rentals, which could promote purchases of DVD players. (Hi-Tech News Center)