HD DVD group says outselling Blu-ray in Europe

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - HD DVD video players have outsold rival standard Blu-ray players by a three-to-one margin in Europe's main markets so far this year, according to a lobby group.

The European HD DVD Promotional Group claimed it had 74 percent market share in Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Switzerland for stand-alone players, citing sales figures it commissioned from market research group GfK.

GfK said it has not published research commissioned from the trade group.

The HD DVD group, led by Toshiba Corp. (6502.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and backed by Microsoft Corp. (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and film studios including Warner Bros. (TWX.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), declined to give figures for how many players it had shipped to retail outlets in Europe.

The figures were for stand-alone players only and did not include sales of games consoles such as Sony Corp.'s (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) (SNE.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) PlayStation 3, which contains a Blu-ray player.

The Sony-led Blu-ray lobby group includes Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (005930.KS: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Apple Inc. (AAPL.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Dell Inc. (DELL.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz). Its discs, which are outselling HD DVD discs, can store more information and special features but the technology is more expensive.

Toshiba cut prices for its HD-E1 HD DVD player to 399 euros ($549) in Europe and $299 in the United States last month from 499 euros and $399, respectively.

Sony's BDP-S300 Blu-ray player costs $499 in the United States, and its BDP-S1E European version has recently gone on sale, with prices starting at around 900 euros. Other Blu-ray players have been on sale in Europe for longer.

According to its Web site, Blu-ray is an optical disc format developed to enable recording, rewriting and playback of high-definition video. It claims to offer more than five times the storage capacity of traditional DVDs.