Disney Takes Steps to Halt Video Skid

Walt Disney Co., in a bid to revitalize its slumping home-video business, said it will make 26 of its animated film titles permanently available for sale on video over the next two years.

The company said it also will create a collection of 10 other titles, including “Snow White” and “The Lion King.” Each of these films will be kept out of stores for 10 years before Disney reintroduces them, one title a year beginning in 2001, on both VHS and digital video disc.

The move comes as the Burbank-based company tries to turn around falling profits at its core home-video business, which has been partly to blame for the company’s two-year earnings slump. Disney also is trying to take advantage of an expected boom in sales of DVDs by releasing all future titles on both VHS and DVD at the same time.

Disney said it will hold 10 titles in moratorium. Beginning in 2001 with “Snow White,” the company will release one of these titles a year on DVD and VHS each fall.