DVD sales drop once again in 2008

According to figures unveiled at CES by Digital Entertainment Group (DEG), in 2008 US DVD spending dropped yet again in 2008. The 5.5% decrease compared to 2007, which includes sales and rentals of both standard DVDs and Blu-ray discs, continues a trend which began in 2007 when spending fell over 3% from the year before.

As expected, one potentially bright spot was Blu-ray. To date nearly 10 million Blu-ray players have been sold, including PS3 game consoles. Blu-ray discs accounted for almost $750 million.

Although disc sales fell 19% to $14.5 billion, rental revenue remained flat at $7.5 billion. Although it's possible this trend will change as prices for Blu-ray discs approach what consumers are used to for standard DVDs, it may be that people simply don't have an interest in buying the same number of discs as in previous years.

Or it could be a combination of personal collections that are already established and increased competition from products like game consoles. Only time will tell which is a greater factor. Despite the on-going recession, Blu-ray is expected to continue gaining market share in 2009. Perhaps this will be the year we see whether this translates into increased disc sales.

Written by: Rich Fiscus @ 14 Jan 2009 1:21

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13 comments

Matt898

At First I wondered if BD would make it, but now that the price of disc are coming down to the price of DVD and the Players themselves prices are dropping. I think it's going to be around for a while. Although the price of of blank BD media is still pretty high. I wonder how that's gonna play out

14.1.2009 12:08 #1

emugamer

Although I've wanted to, I haven't purchased any DVD's in a while. The main reason being that SD is really dead to me personally. If I'm going to invest in any movie, I want the best quality format. But since I'm investing in a larger HD TV in a couple of months, either 42 or 46" plasma, I don't want to spend money on SD media. Upscaling doesn't do it for me anymore, and after measuring the distances I would be from my new television, I will only invest in bluray. On the flip side of that, I haven't purchased many blu-ray movies mainly due to the price. Not sure if many people feel the same way. I just happen to be in a position now where I will finally bne eliminating SD from my house completely this year. And I've been preparing for it and saving since 2008.

14.1.2009 12:16 #2

CNDLG

Eventually you'll have $29 bluray players (like DVD players today), and bargin discs for $5 and then regular DVDs will be good as gone. Unlike some people though, I don't think physical media like this will ever go away completely. Wonder what comes next, holographic discs?

14.1.2009 13:42 #3

DXR88

Originally posted by Matt898: At First I wondered if BD would make it, but now that the price of disc are coming down to the price of DVD and the Players themselves prices are dropping. I think it's going to be around for a while. Although the price of of blank BD media is still pretty high. I wonder how that's gonna play out
alot of that is PC's problem. you have writers but there still expensive, not to mention OEM's are pissed at the BD group for giving them the shaft.

14.1.2009 14:15 #4

Globe08

Originally posted by emugamer: Although I've wanted to, I haven't purchased any DVD's in a while. The main reason being that SD is really dead to me personally. If I'm going to invest in any movie, I want the best quality format. But since I'm investing in a larger HD TV in a couple of months, either 42 or 46" plasma, I don't want to spend money on SD media. Upscaling doesn't do it for me anymore, and after measuring the distances I would be from my new television, I will only invest in bluray. On the flip side of that, I haven't purchased many blu-ray movies mainly due to the price. Not sure if many people feel the same way. I just happen to be in a position now where I will finally bne eliminating SD from my house completely this year. And I've been preparing for it and saving since 2008.Nah im definently with you on this one. I dont want to buy standard dvds because they soon will become extinct one way or another be it high def dvds or non-physical media. And at the same time i want to get the full potential out of my 46 inch lcd (1080p) samsung but blu-ray movies makes buying movies too hard of process. You have go all siskel and ebert on that sh!t. You cant just throw down 30 plus bucks for any old movie i mean damn that shat. You can go out to the theatre and see 3 different movies at that rate. I know if you look hard enough you can find deals like the 50% of certain blu-ray movies amazon.com had going not too long ago but thats not the standard. Well, done rambling here.

14.1.2009 16:36 #5

Interestx

DVD only down a few %?

Considering all the angles of attack DVD is currently under that is an amazingly resiliant performance.

DVD sells in the multi-billion unit range so a few % is really neither here nor there
(IIRC DVD sold 1.4 billion in the USA alone this year, Blu-ray had 4.25% of that market).

14.1.2009 19:13 #6

jos22

i have been holding off buying dvds waiting for blueray movies to be priced reasonably 36 euro for 1 movie no thanks.

14.1.2009 20:14 #7

NexGen76

14.1.2009 20:16 #8

oappi

@emugamer
Same here. Since i got bd player for my computer i have bought only bd movies. I only have to hook my pc to my 40" tv (which is near my computer).

Players aren�t that expensive if you dont mind using your computer to watch the movie (less than $90 with older computers you also have to buy $30-50 videocard to get hdmi/dvi and hdcp). My collection of dvd�s isn�t that large, so it is kinda easy for me to say i already have more blu-ray movies than dvd. Never thought dvd more than a digital versio of VHS anyway. Like always digital image can be stored easier but when you are careless or dont know what you are doing your whole collection could vanish. Atleast with bd we can record longer than we could with dvd or vhs, but we will see if usb memmory sticks take that fun away from bd.

Atleast from amazon you can get bd movies at fair price. I havent payed more than $20 + shipping from my movies. Some are half of that (reservoir dogs). There might be better stores but just want to point out that those movies aren�t that expensive. New movies most likely are, but you can wait 1 year. If you cant go to movies =).

14.1.2009 20:31 #9

emugamer

I only buy used anyway. The few I have, I got for around $12 each. So even if I had a huge collection of blu rays, I wouldn't be one of the people contributing to the increase in blu ray sales. I only by at Amazon, and used movies almost always beat out the best Amazon sales.

14.1.2009 22:23 #10

Rustbuket

There was only a few blockbuster type of movies worthy of buying in 2008, Hollywood doesn't make much off of me as it is thanks to redbox. I would loved to buy the new Indy movie and walmart had it playing on a display HDTV. The aSpect ratio made the movie too damn small and wasted most of the screen. No thanks! Hwood lost a sale on that one.

15.1.2009 09:44 #11

kalboy

Originally posted by oappi: @emugamer
Same here. Since i got bd player for my computer i have bought only bd movies. I only have to hook my pc to my 40" tv (which is near my computer).

Players aren�t that expensive if you dont mind using your computer to watch the movie (less than $90 with older computers you also have to buy $30-50 videocard to get hdmi/dvi and hdcp). My collection of dvd�s isn�t that large, so it is kinda easy for me to say i already have more blu-ray movies than dvd. Never thought dvd more than a digital versio of VHS anyway. Like always digital image can be stored easier but when you are careless or dont know what you are doing your whole collection could vanish. Atleast with bd we can record longer than we could with dvd or vhs, but we will see if usb memmory sticks take that fun away from bd.

Atleast from amazon you can get bd movies at fair price. I havent payed more than $20 + shipping from my movies. Some are half of that (reservoir dogs). There might be better stores but just want to point out that those movies aren�t that expensive. New movies most likely are, but you can wait 1 year. If you cant go to movies =).

16.1.2009 18:10 #12

zrdb

Originally posted by emugamer: Although I've wanted to, I haven't purchased any DVD's in a while. The main reason being that SD is really dead to me personally. If I'm going to invest in any movie, I want the best quality format. But since I'm investing in a larger HD TV in a couple of months, either 42 or 46" plasma, I don't want to spend money on SD media. Upscaling doesn't do it for me anymore, and after measuring the distances I would be from my new television, I will only invest in bluray. On the flip side of that, I haven't purchased many blu-ray movies mainly due to the price. Not sure if many people feel the same way. I just happen to be in a position now where I will finally bne eliminating SD from my house completely this year. And I've been preparing for it and saving since 2008.
Boloney and salami-I have bath an Oppo DV-983 and a samjunk BD-P2500 which are generally reguarded as being the best upscaleing dvds players around-the fack that the samjunk is no slouch when it comes to bluray is an added bonus in my view-if u want to elminate dvds from your place of residence-ok-but since I only have 3 blurays and about 3000 dvds you can guess where my alegiance lies.

16.1.2009 19:16 #13

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