LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Japan's Toshiba Corp said on Sunday sales of HD DVD players in North America, including other brands' HD DVD drive sales, totalled 1 million units last year, driven by demand for Internet-delivered content.

Toshiba, reeling from Warner Bros studio's announcement that it would exclusively release high-definition DVDs using the rival Blu-ray format instead of Toshiba's HD DVD technology, sought to stress instead the potential of its recent alliance with Sharp Corp on TV panels.

Toshiba executives made the comments at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The high-stakes DVD format battle has made consumers hesitant about buying DVD players and has acted as a damper on an industry now hit by declining sales of traditional DVDs.

(Reporting by Mayumi Negishi, editing by Phil Berlowitz)
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