The DVD6C Licensing Group announced to reduce 30.8 percent
of the royalty charge for DVD-R discs from US$0.065 to US$0.045 per disc. The
lowered royalty will be retroactive to Jan 1, 2006. Taiwan disc makers are expecÂted
to benefit from the reduction. The indusÂtry indicated that the optical discs
makers have faced difficulties in recent years while many makers cannot maintain
their operaÂtions. Since Taiwan disc makers have had to pay high royalty charge
before, the royalty reduction this time will help to lower the production cost
of the DVD-R discs and is expecÂted to boost the production volume of DVD-R
discs to surpass the production volume of CD-R. The institutional investor
indicated that it seems the spring of optical discs has come because the EU has
stopped the investigation of anti-dumping of CD-R and DVD6C decided to reduce
the royalty charge.