Sony aggressively pushes Blu-ray with Australian consumers

Peter Dinham
Monday, 09 March 2009 14:01

IT Industry - Deals

Sony’s looking to consolidate its Blu-ray market in Australia and says it’s going to inject another 20,000 Blu-ray players into Australian homes with its launch later this month of a bonus promotional offer across its range of BRAVIA LCD TVs.

The promotion, which incorporates all of Sony’s Full HD BRAVIA LCD TVs with Motionflow technology, begins on 16 March and, according to Sony, it will run until all 20,000 Blu-ray players are redeemed.

Not one to sit back and let consumer take-up of Blu-ray technology just run its course, Sony offered a similar deal with a free PS3 with all Bravia LCD TVs last year, and says the Blu-ray player featured in this latest bonus promotion is its BDP-S550 with a retail price tag of $649.

Talking up the promotion, Sony Australia’s head of strategy and brand development, Toby Barbour, says Sony has been “at the forefront of the Blu-ray format since its inception."
 
And, according to one of Barbour’s colleagues, Australians have been quick to go across to the new Blu-ray format.

Kim Overall, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment’s managing director, said that after launching less than two years ago, the Blu-ray format had rapidly been accepted by Australian consumers as the new generation for home entertainment.
 
According to Overall, at the end of 2008, more than 450,000 Blu-ray players, including PlayStation 3, had already been sold in Australia as well as an estimated 750,000 Blu-ray Disc titles.

Overall doesn’t think the Blu-ray players on offer with the bonus promotion will last long and to help anyone who wants to snag a player with their TV buy, from 16 March onwards you can go to www.sony.com.au/bonus for a live update of how many are left.