PANASONIC MAKES DELIVERY OF 500,000th DIGITAL VIDEO RECORDER

LAS VEGAS, NV (April 17, 2005) – Here at NAB 2005, Panasonic announced the delivery of its 500,000th DVCPRO/professional DV format recorder. Since its launch in 1996 with two products – the AJ-D700 ENG camcorder and the AJ-D750 studio VTR -- Panasonic has achieved more than 500,000 unit sales of digital video recorders. Panasonic’s Emmy Award-winning DVCPRO format is the industry standard for high-quality digital acquisition, recording, editing and archiving, and offers a complete family of tape products and a hierarchy of compatible formats, including both standard and high definition resolutions. Panasonic currently offers a wide range of recording products in its 25Mbps DVCPRO, 50Mbps DVCPRO50 and 100 Mbps DVCPRO HD as well as professional DV formats, with popular models like the AJ-HDC27 VariCam® DVCPRO HD and the AJ-SDX900 DVCPRO50 camcorders and the AJ-HD1200A IEEE1394-equipped DVCPRO HD and AJ-SD93 IEEE1394-equipped DVCPRO50 portable VTRs. “We would like to sincerely thank our DVCPRO customers for helping us reach this outstanding achievement,” said John Baisley, president, Panasonic Broadcast. “DVCPRO continues to provide users an excellent return on investment and offers the best migration path from DV to HD to protect video professionals’ financial and creative investments. “And last year, DVCPRO entered the solid-state memory recording era with the availability of P2. At this NAB, we have expanded our DVCPRO P2 line-up with new standard definition and high definition products. We now look forward to delivery of the 1 millionth DVCPRO recorder.” About Panasonic Broadcast Panasonic Broadcast & Television Systems Co. is a leading supplier of broadcast, professional video and presentation products and systems. Panasonic Broadcast is a unit company of Panasonic Corporation of North America. The company is the North American headquarters of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. (NYSE: MC) of Japan, and the hub of its U.S. marketing, sales, service and R&D operations For more information on Panasonic Broadcast products, access the company’s web site at www.panasonic.com/broadcast.