Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: blu-ray, disc, sales, recession, bluray | Themes: Home Theater, Digital Entertainment
Blu-ray Disc is gaining ground even in hard times.
During times when many expect less than optimistic, Blu-ray manages to continue reach more of the market.
In the first half of 2009, growth of Blu-ray sales compared to last year were up 91 percent to $407 million, according to the Digital Entertainment Group. This is a particularly bright spot for the format as the entire home entertainment industry was down overall. Consumer spending for the first half of 2009 on DVD, Blu-ray Disc and digital distribution, was $9.73 billion, down by 3.9 percent compared to the same period last year.
Stats gathered by Swicker & Associates say that nearly 20 million Blu-ray discs shipped to retail in the second quarter of the year – a growth of 57 percent over the same period last year. There was 79 percent growth for the first half of the year compared to the same period last year. Rentals were also up 62 percent for Blu-ray disc, another strong indication that the mainstream consumers are buying into the format.
Blu-ray Disc hardware sales exceeded two million units in the first half of 2009, an increase of almost 25 percent over the same period last year. This brings the total installed base of Blu-ray devices in U.S. homes to nearly 11 million units, including the PS3 and standalones.
Helping to fuel the growth of Blu-ray is the increase in HDTVs in U.S. homes. According to the CEA, more than 10 million HDTVs were sold to consumers in the first half of 2009. Household penetration of HDTVs in the U.S. is at approximately 44 million, up 13 percent from the end of year 2008, representing 38 percent of all U.S. households.
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Funny that you should include an image of "The Fifth Element" with this piece. I've upgraded several DVDs to Blu-ray only to be disappointed with the quality of the mastering. "The Fifth Element" was one of the first to disappoint.
The new version of the 5th Element is much much better then the original Blu-Ray release. The first release was a joke. This new version is worth the upgrade.
The new version of the 5th Element is much much better then the original Blu-Ray release. The first release was a joke. This new version is worth the upgrade.
yeah the new version was brought out strait away to replace the first one they were so ashamed of it. I even herd that people could exchange their old one with the new version for free at some stage.
I'm not surprised by this. This news actually makes sense. It's a recession. People want entertainment to take their minds off their troubles. One of the only industries to make money during the great depression was Hollywood.
I don't buy many Blu-rays, but I don't watch much television period. Cable is soo expensive and disappointing by comparison. I'm hardly, if ever, disappointed by Blu-ray.
The Blu-ray Fifth Element version i saw in the store did not even have dts let alone dts HD master audio, like the dvds they did release a dts dvd version and the transfer and audio were pretty good. The Studios had better get a clue when it comes to Blu-ray releases of films old or new, calling & labeling it something like HD 1920X1080 etc., if the end result does not look much better than dvd then your hurting the format and your sales. I can upsize video to 1920x1080 too but that does'nt make it HD. Goodfellas was another less than impressive transfer.
I was thinking video games may/should be even more popular these days if a good game can give 20+ hours of entertainment, while a movie gives ~2 hours. I'm still waiting for the Blu_Ray blank media to come down in price (at least double the $/gb of DVDs ) before I jump into Blu-Ray myself.
I also stopped watching cable TV and didn't miss it.
This is good to hear, I really like watching movies on blu ray. With more hardware adoption, hopefully new releases will hit netflix faster, I don't buy discs anymore.
The drop of Blu-ray some movies (by discounts) (some go as low as $10-$14) definitely have some boost on the Blu-ray sales. Even the bestbuy has quite a few Blu-ray movies at the price range of $10s every week.
im not biting til the players can be had for 50 bucks or less ,and the disk can be had for 20 bucks or less... or and definitely not before i ahve a HD tv in my home which i still dont have
You guys should read Hi Def Digest before you buy - great reviews of Blurays and they specifically focus on the Video & Audio quality. The 5th Element was always going to be good on Bluray eventually because there was a Superbit version on DVD which was amazing.
The general drop in sales could reflect the fact that people are saving up to buy a Hi Def set up and are not bothering to buy SD-DVDs as they are now outdated. The sharp rise in Bluray sales specifically is no suprise as it is still an emerging format but is now maturing to the point where the players & the discs themselves have come down in price quite a bit. I personally have quite a few Titles and never spend more than £10 per disc.
Up 91 percent? What's that like, 5 more Blurays sold?
The reports of Blu-Ray's demise has been greatly exaggerated?
Yay,that's hard to figure out!
Blueray disks where considered too expensive for most people a couple of months ago, and the main stream market needed to buy the players first.
It's like saying "The New Ford Focus sells 200% better than last week"
Duuh! It's just released a couple of weeks ago!
I got the superbit dvd of fifth element when it released and ran it on an hdmi upscaling dvd player. Milla Jovovich was amazing in those thermal bandages. I can clearly see the advantages of blu ray and can discern the difference between SD and HD of all ranges, but it just doesn't add enough enjoyment to the movie for the price premium. Maybe in a action packed block buster, but everything else I could care less whether I watched it in HD or good, 480p progressive scan. When Blu-ray drives drop to about 50 bucks I will put one in a HTPC, but until then I can do without it.
I'm not gonna argue about the price of entry for bluray readers. You can get the drive off of newegg for $60 at this point if you really wanted to. Streaming HD is definitely more convenient though. You can stream HD pretty well on a 10 megabit connection, and I think as the price of that connection goes down in the coming years we will see digital distribution take off.
Up 91 percent? What's that like, 5 more Blurays sold?
lol thats what I was thinking too
When Blu-ray drives drop to about 50 bucks I will put one in a HTPC, but until then I can do without it.
You can buy them for $60 now if you look for good deals.
I knew I bought a PS3 for some reason. Seriously, I have only watched one Blue Ray movie with it, rented. Not worth it to me, the PS3 up-scales any DVD to 1080P anyway and I didn't see that much difference. I don't buy movies, watch it more than once or twice and I don't want to see it again. Blue Ray is still a premium price, you don't see bargain bins at 2 for $5 in your local Walmart yet and they cost more to rent. I have better things to blow my money on.
B-Ray FTW! Saw this coming.
Household penetration of HDTVs in the U.S. is at approximately 44 million
Let's keep the household penetration to a minimum, please. The kids are watching.
Platypus, thanks for my laugh of the day.
As for Blueray:
I already abhor paying $20-23 for a new release on dvd..
why would I buy blueray for $25-30+?
Most of my dvds I purchased for $5-15. The only blueray I own is Underworld3, and that is only because they were offering it for $1 more than the standard dvd.
Sales might be up but the prices still need to come down; $30 or more for a new release is rediculous. If they could compete with dvd prices (again, for new movies) I might end up purchasing more BD's instead.
As for quality.. upscaling on my ps3, or BD.. I notice a difference but it is not worth the extra money (at least to me)
roofus:
TemjinGold :
Up 91 percent? What's that like, 5 more Blurays sold?
lol thats what I was thinking too
I prefer: Bluerays - now more than 4% of home entertainment! (4.18%, to be precise)
LOL this article is such crap. Keep your alternative motive to yourself. Blu-Ray will not out pace DVD, ever. And Digital Download is coming on strong. Blu-ray was the biggest LOSS for consumers since DVI televisions.
The new version of the 5th Element is much much better then the original Blu-Ray release. The first release was a joke. This new version is worth the upgrade.
Sweet, so consumers can spend 80 bucks for the same movie they had on DVD? (if they bought the crappy one and then want the good one). Blu-Ray can kiss my arse, HD-DVD was the exact same thing, just way cheaper. Plus the DVD/HD-DVD combo is/was super sweet.
I would be curious to see the sales from Amazon on their HD-DVD movies
The drop of Blu-ray some movies (by discounts) (some go as low as $10-$14) definitely have some boost on the Blu-ray sales. Even the bestbuy has quite a few Blu-ray movies at the price range of $10s every week.
Yea and those movies suck arse. I know cause i check every week. THIS WHOLE ARTICLE DOESNT PROVE THEY ARE SELLING that many. These are just sold to the big stores like the Best Buys and whever else you can get Blu-Rays... it doesnt mean they get to the consumer at all. For all we know, Walmart can have 2million blu-rays sitting in their warehouse for a few years now.