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Saturday
10Jan2009

DVD Sales Down Nearly 10% in 2008

DateSaturday, January 10, 2009 at 2:31AM
There are a couple of factors you can point to, but the sales numbers for DVDs in 2008 were not good. Digital Entertainment Group reports that overall home video spending was down last year by over 5%, with DVD sales slumping 9%.

It's not the end of the world; Americans still spent $22.4 billion on home video, and most of that was DVD sales. Rentals accounted for $7.5 billion in home video revenue, which was mostly unchanged from 2007.

But the decline in DVD sales was both steeper than forecasts had indicated and in direct contrast to Blu-Ray sales. In the fourth quarter, analysts had pinpointed the total annual loss of DVD sales in the 5 - 7% range, so to see it plummet so far in that same three month window is discouraging.

But the news for Blu-Ray is much, much better. The newer format - the one we'll all be using sooner or later - saw an increase of 300% from the previous year, and at $750 million in sales in 2008, the totals line up nicely with prior estimates.

Now, $750 million may not seem like a big ripple in a $22 billion pond, but considering that there are still fewer than 10 million Blu-Ray players that have been sold, that's a lot of product flying off the shelves. The DEG also reports that a third of the Blu-Ray players sold so far were purchased in the past three months alone.

So the times they are a-changin'.

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AuthorColin Boyd | | in | Print ArticlePrint Article | | Comment2 Comments |

Reader Comments (2)

A couple things:

A) Middle class collectors who haven't yet gotten Blu-Ray players aren't buying as much because they know they will have to upgrade eventually and standard DVDs are not compatible. So the "borderline" purchases to fatten the collection are more likely to lean towards the "hell, I'll just wait until the price goes down and I upgrade to Blu-Ray."

2. The movie by itself is still cheap, but the "bells and whistles" editions are steadily climbing in price. And your average collector is thinking that it's a waste to buy the cheaper option with no extras so "hell ,I'll just wait until the price goes down and I upgrade to Blu-Ray."

and D: Many online services and sattelite services offer affordable high-def movie channels and rental services and the 720P/1080i picture is actually higher quality than my old DVDs. I mean, sure I don't own them right now but... hell, I'll just wait until the price goes down and I upgrade to Blu-Ray.

Saturday, January 10, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterMRPigg

Average Joe, been buying DVDs from 2005. Have brought steadily from 2005 to 2007. Got laid off from Real Estate (loffice gopher) in 2007. Expeneses rise, income dries up, guess what gets cut? Yep, DVDs. I have purchased far less, but have noticed prices have risen on all fronts. More dis-incentive to buy. Gonna be even less buying this year. Welcome to the Vicious Cycle,
Bet home made DVDs will be the norm in the near future--cheap to make and even a bread line chump will be able to afford a little entertainment. Chindia (China and India) could flood us with cheap DVDs---not that we are not already beholden (economically) to them. Enjoy the Freefall.

Friday, January 16, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterAndrew

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