Blu-ray sales reach $750 million for 2008

[Blu Titan]

Blu-ray sales reach $750 million for 2008. A very informational article from Video Business News.

DEG says industry off 5.5% in 2008
Blu-ray Disc shipments, sales tripled
By Marcy Magiera -- Video Business, 1/7/2009
JAN. 7 | DEG: The Digital Entertainment Group said today that U.S. consumer spending on packaged home entertainment fell by 5.5% in 2008, to $22.4 billion.

The total encompasses rental and sales of DVD and high-definition disc formats.

High-def disc spending, primarily Blu-ray Disc, almost tripled during the year, however, reaching $750 million, according to DEG figures compiled with input from all the major studios.

Blu-ray software shipments grew 250%, to 63.2 million units in 2008, from 18 million units in 2007, DEG said.

Sales of Blu-ray players, including videogame consoles, meanwhile, grew to almost 10 million units since the format’s launch, according to DEG. In the fourth quarter alone, 3 million devices were sold, the trade group said.

Consumer spending on DVD purchases fell more dramatically than the total, declining by 9%, to about $14.5 billion, according to DEG, while rental spending including kiosk transactions, was flat. In total, consumer spending on DVD rentals and sales combined fell 7.3%, to $21.6 billion, according to DEG.

DVD shipments also were down during the year, declining to 1.4 billion units, an almost 15% drop from 2007 unit shipments.

Video Business will release its own year-end analysis, including consumer spending totals and studio market share, on Jan. 19.http://www.videobusiness.com/article/CA6627437.html

[Maximus]

Hopefully Blu-ray growth speeds up this year and stabilises home video revenue otherwise there is going to be a lot of turmoil in Hollywood.

Life would have been so much easier for the studios had all of them been on board with Blu-ray from 2005 allowing for a soft launch extremely early with very high priced players...

[owa]

Originally Posted by Blu Titan

Sales of Blu-ray players, including videogame consoles, meanwhile, grew to almost 10 million units since the format’s launch, according to DEG. In the fourth quarter alone, 3 million devices were sold, the trade group said.

Since they include videogame consoles (the PS3), that seems to indicate that the total number of PS3s out there (in use) is less than 10 million? I thought I saw a number recently that was much higher than that but maybe that included what had been shipped to retail, etc. as well?

Anyway, interesting article and thanks for the link.

[FinalEvangelion]

Originally Posted by owa

Since they include videogame consoles (the PS3), that seems to indicate that the total number of PS3s out there (in use) is less than 10 million? I thought I saw a number recently that was much higher than that but maybe that included what had been shipped to retail, etc. as well?

Anyway, interesting article and thanks for the link.

For the US only.

About 20 million worldwide is my next guess on shipments.

[naturephoto1]

Good sign for Blu-ray sales.

Rich

[kurtlingle]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

Hopefully Blu-ray growth speeds up this year and stabilises home video revenue otherwise there is going to be a lot of turmoil in Hollywood.

Life would have been so much easier for the studios had all of them been on board with Blu-ray from 2005 allowing for a soft launch extremely early with very high priced players...

That's also what I was wondering - how much did the format war affect all this. Thanks for the input.

[Elandyll]

Originally Posted by owa

Since they include videogame consoles (the PS3), that seems to indicate that the total number of PS3s out there (in use) is less than 10 million? I thought I saw a number recently that was much higher than that but maybe that included what had been shipped to retail, etc. as well?

Anyway, interesting article and thanks for the link.

Those numbers (it seems to me) are US only.
There is about 18million PS3 sold worlwide, but I think only about 6-7million in the US. Could be wrong of course

[JAGUAR1977]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

Hopefully Blu-ray growth speeds up this year and stabilises home video revenue otherwise there is going to be a lot of turmoil in Hollywood.

Life would have been so much easier for the studios had all of them been on board with Blu-ray from 2005 allowing for a soft launch extremely early with very high priced players...

December Blu-ray sales appeared to ramp up in December across the US/Europe above and beyond what you'd expect from previous months sales, even taking the obvious Christmas boost into account.

That being said I expect DVD's decline to accelerate even quicker, the format war has put HDM 1 year behind were it should be, the studios only have themselves to blame.

[AcePunK]

Read

Originally Posted by Blu Titan

The Digital Entertainment Group said today that U.S. consumer spending on packaged home entertainment fell by 5.5% in 2008, to $22.4 billion.

[mapledragon]

63.2M and 750M revenue. That works out to < $12 per disk. Is this the average revenue the studio takes in from the total pot?

Even assuming average BD retail price of $25 (which would be low unless everyone buys from amazon or waits for sales), $25 * 63.2M is > 1.5B.

[york weir]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

Hopefully Blu-ray growth speeds up this year and stabilises home video revenue otherwise there is going to be a lot of turmoil in Hollywood.

Life would have been so much easier for the studios had all of them been on board with Blu-ray from 2005 allowing for a soft launch extremely early with very high priced players...

Had there not been a format war and the visibility that got if even less people would know of blu-ray than now.

I'm sure the war kept people away but would those people even know about the format otherwise....

[MarekM]

Originally Posted by mapledragon

63.2M and 750M revenue. That works out to < $12 per disk. Is this the average revenue the studio takes in from the total pot?

Even assuming average BD retail price of $25 (which would be low unless everyone buys from amazon or waits for sales), $25 * 63.2M is > 1.5B.

I think 63,2mil. units were SHIPPED not SOLD

Marek

[freddylinni]

Originally Posted by MarekM

I think 63,2mil. units were SHIPPED not SOLD

Marek

Correct. Is compareable to the DVD shipped information that DEG has released the previous years.

I 1999 DVD Shipped 128.6 million discs
http://www.dvdinformation.com/industryData/index.cfm

[Maximus]

Originally Posted by york weir

Had there not been a format war and the visibility that got if even less people would know of blu-ray than now.

I'm sure the war kept people away but would those people even know about the format otherwise....

No way. The format war may have given visibility, which is fine, but it damaged the position of Blu-ray long-term.

If Blu-ray had been the only option from the start, everybody in the tech press would have got behind it, and everybody would be pushing it much harder now.

2009 is going to be a massive year for Blu-ray, hopefully capturing 20% of the total home video market by the end of the year.

[HeavyHitter]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

If Blu-ray had been the only option from the start, everybody in the tech press would have got behind it, and everybody would be pushing it much harder now.

I totally agree. The format war created so much partisanship which I don't think will ever entirely go away.

[york weir]

Originally Posted by Maxpower1987

No way. The format war may have given visibility, which is fine, but it damaged the position of Blu-ray long-term.

If Blu-ray had been the only option from the start, everybody in the tech press would have got behind it, and everybody would be pushing it much harder now.

2009 is going to be a massive year for Blu-ray, hopefully capturing 20% of the total home video market by the end of the year.

I'm sure you're right, it was just my first thought.