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RCA Press Release for June 6, 1982 No. 2

CHICAGO, June 6 -- Despite the recession, American consumers spent more than $90 million for CED video disc players and albums in the product's first year, Thomas G. Kuhn, Division Vice President, RCA VideoDiscs, announced today.

"This means that video disc hardware and software sales in the first 12 months exceeded the combined first-year sales volumes of black-and-white television, color television, and video cassette recorders, an achievement that becomes even more dramatic when viewed against the economic environment of the past-year," Mr. Kuhn told a press dinner prior to the opening of the Consumer Electronics Show here.

Mr. Kuhn said disc sales have far exceeded RCA's expectations. He said there are some 250 titles currently available on the CED system, a number which is expected to exceed 400 by year-end.

Of the 30 top grossing movies of all time, 14 currently are available on CED format albums, including "Grease", "The Godfather", "Saturday Night Fever", "Kramer vs. Kramer", "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest", and "Superman." Of the top 100 grossing films, RCA has licensed 50 and has already released 30 of these on video discs.

A group of companies responsible for manufacturing and marketing the CED video disc format will co-sponsor an exhibit on the main floor of the Consumer Electronics Show. In addition to RCA, they include CBS and Fox Video, Hitachi, MGM/UA, Sanyo, Toshiba and Zenith. The exhibit will feature a demonstration of stereo video discs.

In addition to 11 new stereo video disc albums which were announced today, RCA is releasing nine new monaural video disc titles in June and 13 more in July. The June and July titles include a mix of recent and classic motion pictures, sports programming and RCA's first dual track disc ("Jane Fonda's Workout"), which gives the stereo player user a choice of listening to music and instruction on one track, or music alone on the other. Mr. Kuhn also noted that CED monaural and stereo discs are totally compatible and can be played on any CED player.

The June releases are: "The Deep", "The Producers", "Superman", "Dirty Harry", "The Horse Soldiers", "California Suite", "Tess", "Modern Times", and "Family Entertainment Playhouse, Volume II: The Ransom of Red Chief/Mr. Gimme/Shoeshine Girl/Best Horse."

The new releases for July are: "The Three Musketeers", "Blazing Saddles", "Last Tango in Paris", "The Adventures of Robin Hood", "White Lightning", "The Bugs Bunny/Roadrunner Movie", "10", "The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea", "Dr. No", "Love At First Bite," "Stripes", "Baseball Fun & Games", and "Jane Fonda's Workout."

Mr. Kuhn added that "the rate of disc sales is a strong indication of consumer satisfaction with the CED video disc system." He said that video disc player owners who have owned the player for 12 months or more have already accumulate an average of more than 32 discs. "We are finding that player owners are interested in collecting video discs and that they are building libraries of them, just as they do with books and audio records," Mr. Kuhn said.

"While we want our system to cater to the mass market," Mr. Kuhn continued, "we also want to reach out to those consumers who have specific fields of program preference -- classic movie fans, lovers of Shakespeare or the ballet, sports fans, and so on. RCA will be promoting video discs by themes starting this summer with the new category of stereo video discs and the very popular area of children's programming."

Mr. Kuhn also noted that late this summer RCA VideoDiscs' first national print advertising campaign will begin. The ads will stress the simplicity of player operation, the affordability of the system and the diversity of entertainment available.

"Based on the strength of disc sales and optimistic reports coming in from dealers all over the country, I believe we will see the momentum behind the CED system continue to accelerate through the end of 1982 and beyond. Several dealers have reported disc sales in the first quarter of 1982 far in excess of what they sold in all of 1981. Software is the locomotive behind this product, and we're picking up steam," Mr. Kuhn said.