Best Buy offers nine HD DVDs with player

Retailer adds two in-store freebies to Toshiba’s seven discs

By Ned Randolph -- Video Business, 10/2/2007

OCT. 2 | Best Buy is offering nine free HD DVDs with the purchase of its $399 Toshiba HD A30 HD DVD player, upping the ante of Toshiba’s promotional offer of seven free HD DVDs with each third-generation player.

All new Toshiba HD DVD player models are being shipped with two HD DVD movies in the box, 300 from Warner Home Video and Bourne Identity from Universal Studios Home Entertainment. The promotion also includes five free movies by mail, out of a selection of 15.

The electronics retailer upped the ante with two more HD DVDs with every store purchase of the more expensive Toshiba player. The offer was promoted in its Sept. 30 newspaper insert and can be seen online at Bestbuy.com. It expires Saturday.

“As we learned from DVD’s introduction over 10 years ago, movie offers certainly drive sales of players, and currently, Toshiba’s HD DVD players continue to lead in consumer sales of next-gen players, as reported by data from NPD, both on a weekly basis as well as year to date,” said Jodi Sally, VP of marketing for Toshiba’s Digital A/V Group.

The Toshiba offer of seven free titles also applies to Microsoft’s HD DVD player for the Xbox 360 and select laptops with HD DVD drives, Sally said.