The US Sony boss may have recently expressed doubts over the format war, but here in the UK, it's all gun blazing as another PR release is sent out concerning HD DVD statistics.

The European HD DVD Promotional Group has announced that European HD DVD player owners have already bought an average of 3.8 movies each, compared to 0.6 movies sold per Blu-ray player.

The figures were collated by independent research group GfK and analyse the number of movies sold for all HD players (standalone players and consoles) across the UK, France, Germany, Spain Italy and Benelux countries.

The overall attach rate is highest in Spain, where HD DVD owners have bought an average of 5.7 movies per player, which is over 14 times the attach rate for Blu-ray (at 0.4 per player). Here are the other country breakdowns:

* Italy: HD DVD owners have bought an average of 4.4 movies each (11 times the Blu-ray figure of 0.4 per player).
* France: HD DVD owners have bought an average of 5 movies each (over 8 times the Blu-ray figure of 0.6 per player).
* Benelux: HD DVD owners have bought an average of 2.9 movies each (over 7 times the 0.4 movies bought by Blu-ray owners)
* Germany: HD DVD owners have bought an average of 2.9 movies each (which is over 4 times the 0.6 movies bought by Blu-ray owners)
* UK: HD DVD owners have bought an average of 3.7 movies each (which is over 4 times the 0.8 movies bought by Blu-ray owners)

"HD DVD not only offers all the picture and audio benefits of other HD formats, it also has the most affordable and feature-rich players on the market today. Unlike other HD formats, every player produced gives the consumer the same consistent HD performance and experience", said Alan Bell, chief technology officer, Paramount Pictures.

It's your turn, Blu-ray camp...