LAS VEGAS – The Digital Entertainment Group (DEG) will present
Best Buy, Nebraska Furniture Mart and Amazon.com with Retailer of the Year
Awards tonight at its 14th annual International Consumer Electronics Show (CES)
reception.
The industry trade group, comprised of content providers and CE
manufacturers, established the awards to recognize excellence in promoting and
merchandising new digital entertainment products and Blu-ray Disc titles during
the past year.
Best Buy reclaimed the National Retailer of the Year award within
the hardware category for its “visionary approaches to displays and
merchandising and support of emerging technologies,” DEG said.
Nebraska Furniture Mart copped Regional Retailer of the Year
honors in hardware for its support of complete lines of all hardware categories
and demonstrations of new technologies.
The award for Retailer of the Year for Software went to
Amazon.com. DEG said its membership overwhelmingly voted for the online
retailer for its innovative approach to driving Blu-ray 3D, as well as creative
new consumer promotions behind EST, VOD and MOD.
Separately, Panasonic and Sony Electronics received Emiel N.
Petrone Digital Innovation Awards, named in memory of DEG’s founding chairman,
in the sight, source and sound categories. The latter went to Sony Electronics
for its STR-DA5600ES 7.1 channel network multi-room A/V receiver, while
Panasonic took home respective sight and sound awards for its 50-inch TC-P50VT25
Viera 3D 1080p plasma TV and DMP-BDT100 full HD 3D Blu-ray Disc player.
DEG also bestowed Creative Excellence honors to six 2010 Blu-ray
Disc titles for their overall sound and picture quality and features that best
demonstrate the value-added nature of the format. The winners included:
·
Theatrical Title of the Year: “Avatar,” Extended
Collector’s Edition, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment;
·
Classic Title of the Year: “The Sound of Music,”
45
th
Anniversary Edition, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment;
·
TV Title of the Year: “Lost: The Complete
Collection,” Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment;
·
Non-Theatrical Title of the Year: “Life” (narrated
by David Attenborough), BBC/Warner Home Video;
·
Music Title of the Year: “The Promise: The
Darkness On The Edge of Town Story,” Columbia Records/Sony Music Entertainment,
and;
·
3D Title of the Year: “Disney’s A Christmas
Carol,” Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment.
