Blu-ray disc sales soar!

[TheMoose]

Blu-Ray disc sales rising

From High Def Digest

Thanks to the demise of HD DVD and increased Blu-ray retail momentum, next-gen disc sales are starting to carve out a bigger slice of the home video pie, a new report suggests.

According to an analysis of Nielsen VideoScan First Alert numbers conducted by Home Media Magazine, Disney's Blu-ray chart-topper 'No Country for Old Men' drew 9.8 percent of its total unit sales from Blu-ray during its first five days in stores.

Faring even better was Fox's 'Hitman,' which saw 12.6 percent of total customers taking home the Blu-ray version during its first five days.

By comparison, high-def percentages during the height of the format war rarely topped 2 to 3 percent of a title's total disc sales. (Even 2007's biggest high-def seller, the HD DVD-only release of 'Transformers,' generated little more than 4 percent of its total unit sales from the next-gen version.)

Adams Media Research analyst Tom Adams cited a newfound sense of confidence among consumers as the main reason for Blu-ray's recent siege on DVD market share, as many of those previously waiting out the format war may now be willing to dip their toes in the Blu waters.

"Before, there was a tendency to play it safe and stick with the standard DVD," Adams said. "But now there's no longer anything to worry about."

Adams also expects to see Blu-ray disc sales continue to boom throughout the rest of calendar year, fueled by increasing penetration of Blu-ray hardware and sales of Sony's Blu-ray-driven PlayStation 3.

Going from 3% to over 12% since hd-dvd quit the war is amazing to me!

[rex]

Sony will offer Blu-ray Disc (BD) devices in a wide range of product lines and prices and aims to increase the global market share of its BD products from 20% currently to 50% by the end of 2008, according to Sony president and Electronics CEO Ryoji Chubachi at a press conference in Taipei on April 3.

DVD and BD currently account for about 80% and 20%, respectively, of global demand for movie discs, Chubachi indicated. The new BD devices to be offered by Sony include models integrating an HD LCD TV with BD recording functionality, Chubachi pointed out.

Sony has relied mainly on the PlayStation 3 (PS3) to promote BD, and sales of the game console will increase along with the offering by top Hollywood studios of new BD movies, Chubachi noted. However, Sony will extend its BD promotion from the current focus on the PS3 and BD players/recorders to IT devices, Chubachi pointed out.

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20080407PD201.html

[deacongreg]

TheMoose,


This will only increase as time goes on. Now, that a winner has emerged.

[wes]

The prices are still obnoxious!! $35 for a movie get a grip. I wish they could offer an upgrade path to people who own DVDs

I have over 500 DVDs and would gladly trade in my DVDs for Blu Ray if the upgrade was no more that $10 a movie. That still would mean $5000 for the studios, now I have decided to only get a handful of great sci-fi movies in blu ray and will not upgrade the DVD collection. I will wait until new movies are a lot more affordable.

I bought my DVDs over the past five years and usually waited until they were on sale at $10 a piece except for a few that I had to have as soon as the movie came out!

We should lobby the studio to offer an upgrade path to blu ray.

[TheMoose]

Originally Posted by wes

The prices are still obnoxious!! $35 for a movie get a grip.

You must be looking at a B&M store if those are the prices your seeing!
I have over 100 Blu-Rays & the most I paid for a single new release was $25 at Amazon.

The B&M stores have lost me as a Blu-Ray customer, I can get a lot more for my $$ online!

[wes]

Well even on line I think prices are obnoxious, Frys.com had a sale for a short period of time at $12.99 and so did Amazon at $14.99