The press releases on this website are provided for historical reference purposes only.
Please note that certain information may have changed since the date of release.
May 20, 2002
Hitachi, Ltd.
LG Electronics Inc.
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
PIONEER CORPORATION
Royal Philips Electronics
SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD.
SHARP CORPORATION
Sony Corporation
THOMSON multimedia
Tokyo Japan, May 20, 2002: Nine leading companies today announced that they will start disclosing specifications for a next generation large capacity optical disc video recording format "Blu-ray Disc" on June 14 2002 on the conditions listed below in accordance with their joint press conference of February 19, 2002. The companies that would start disclosing specifications for the Blu-ray Disc format are: Hitachi, Ltd., LG Electronics Inc., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., PIONEER CORPORATION, Royal Philips Electronics, SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD., SHARP CORPORATION, Sony Corporation, and THOMSON multimedia. The nine companies will be called "Blu-ray Disc Founders", and they will pursue a broad acceptance of the "Blu-ray Disc" format.
The initial aim of the disclosure is to study specifications in time for the targeted start of licensing scheduled around the end of June for the development and manufacturing of products based on the Blu-ray Disc format. With regard to the disclosure, an interested party will be asked to complete the information agreement, and the disclosure of specifications will be processed on the following conditions.
1. Agreement
Completion of the information agreement for Disclosure of Specifications Purpose of information agreement:
Recipients may conduct internal evaluation to explore the feasibility of future development and/or manufacture of products using Blu-ray Disc Standard Specifications.
A set of the aforementioned specifications costs US$ 5,000.
After a completion of the information agreement, specifications will be distributed in print.
