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.

Conditions of Specifications Disclosure

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.

2. Specifications Subject to Disclosure (Version 1.0)
System Description Rewritable Format part1 Basic Format Specifications
System Description Rewritable Format part2 File System Specifications
System Description Rewritable Format part3 Audio Visual Basic Specifications

3. Cost of Specifications Disclosure
A set of the aforementioned specifications costs US$ 5,000.

After a completion of the information agreement, specifications will be distributed in print.

Inquiries regarding the disclosure of specifications should be directed to:
Royal Philips Electronics
Intellectual Property and Standards
Business Support
Building SFF-8
P.O.Box 80002
5600JB Eindhoven
The Netherlands
fax +31402732113
http://www.licensing.philips.com