Closing the global release gap: the time-lag in international film and DVD releases is narrowing.

DVD has often been touted as the most successful consumer electronics product in history. Without doubt, the format's simplicity of use, combined with high quality sound and visuals, and ever-decreasing prices, has fuelled an astonishing boom in the retail (sell-through) video sector since the product's launch. Indeed, the format was carefully positioned as a retail proposition from its inception, and the high margins on DVD sales have made the home entertainment market more crucial than ever to the industry's collective bottom line.

Against this background, we have ex