Sony Pictures plans to retail VCDs and DVDs through Reliance Retail

Mumbai: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (SPHE) has an exclusive deal on the cards with Reliance Retail, which will allow it to sell its DVDs and VCDs.

The company had set up special counters at the Reliance Mart in Ahmedabad recently, and it now wants to secure space at Reliance''s other formats such as Reliance Digital and the speciality stores for books, music and movies.

Sony is looking at special schemes and tie-ups with Reliance Retail, with a view to capitalise on the rapid rollout the retail chain is implementing across the country. These sores give Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (SPHE) an opportunity to piggy-back and magnify its own presence in India, through Reliance Retail''s format.

SPHE, the Rs80-crore home entertainment arm of Sony Pictures, has decided to slash prices of its dubbed in vernacular language VCDs by 60 per cent, from Rs199 to Rs69.

Aiming to cash in on the festive season, Sony Pictures has released its international blockbuster Spiderman 3 in Hindi and Tamil VCDs at this attractive price. It has around 110 dubbed titles, which the company intends to re-price in the range of Rs69.

At these revised prices, and riding the Reliance Retail rollout in smaller towns and cities, SPHE expects VCD sales to contribute up to 40 per cent of its total sales, and plans to notch up its dubbed titles to 400 this year.

India is primarily a VCD-driven market, and pricing is key to success and growth of the category, which is mainly vernacular-based. SPHE will also start localised offerings, with the launch of Bollywood films Saawariya, along with its exhaustive Hollywood titles sourced from the company''s studios.

SPHE is also bringing the Blue-ray Disc technology to India, and is reportedly pricing the discs at Rs1,800.