High definition Blu-ray disc players may be one of the holiday season’s best sellers, but they will still fall short of expectations, due to the tough economy, the head of Sony’s U.S. electronics unit said.

Sales of the next-generation movies players, developed by Sony and sold under brands including Panasonic and Samsung, could benefit from a late shopping spurt as budget conscious U.S. consumers find deals, Stan Glasgow told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.

But they will not meet the worldwide target of 5 million units, most of which had been expected to sell in the United States.

“It’s not that far off of it,” he said. “Maybe 10 percent off of what we had thought. It’s truly one of the items that has performed well during this economic mess.”

After the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday on November 27, electronics retailers are expected to slash prices of Blu-ray players — which originally sold for as high as $1,500 in 2006, — to as low as $150 per unit, experts said.

Sales of Blu-ray players, which promise higher quality video and audio to viewers with HD televisions, have been hampered by retail prices on movie discs, which can top $30 a piece.

A Web site owned by Sony Corp is expected on Monday to unveil a slew of new Internet programs in the latest move by a division of a major media company to bolster online entertainment.

The shows on Crackle.com include sketches by L.A. comedy troupe “The Groundlings,” and a five-minute talk show called “Anytime with Bob Kushell” hosted by a Hollywood writer.

Crackle and parent company Sony Pictures Entertainment, the media wing of Sony Corp., have borrowed from television by rolling out Web shows in “seasons,” marking a change of the haphazard way “webisodes” often appear online as soon as they are made.

Crackle’s new season begins on December 1. The shows, which use the kinds of production techniques that Sony Pictures puts into movies and TV, resemble other online programing by staying short, often no more than five minutes long.