Oh noes teh sky is falling!

[Trekkie313]

All these threads should be combined.

[Warwick]

Originally Posted by ChrisLikesBatman

I think the issue is bigger than that. If one of the largest physical media stores stops selling physical media, the studios won't have much incentive to keep making physical media.

Best Buy is the first to go in 2024, but the others will likely follow.

The biggest physical media store is online and it’s Amazon. They aren’t going to follow. This is what it looks like when a product becomes niche. The sky isn’t falling.

[soaptrail]

Originally Posted by GenPion

Discs still sell well. Over twice as many Blu-ray/4K release have come out in the past two years compared to several years ago. Sales on catalog films with new editions sell better than before in many respects - limited editions tend to sell extremely well.

It's becoming more of a niche with some markets but the market is still bigger than some might think it is. Gone are the 20 billion+ a year revenue from the early 2000s era of DVD but 4 billion+ a year in sales is still a huge amount of revenue.

I totally agree, Discs are generating revenue versus streaming subs which are losing money. I wonder if buying movies via Movies Anywhere retailers is more than a blip on the radar. But discs are shrinking in sales so Studios know they honeymoon is over. We all expect discs to continue to sell but it will not be the cash cow that it once was or even is now. The question is how low will the market fall before it stops. I still buy movies but if I talk to anyone that is "normal" as in not on this forum, they all laugh at me if I bring up buying movies on disc.

[rdodolak]

Originally Posted by ChrisLikesBatman

Exclusive breaking news from The Digital Bits: https://thedigitalbits.com/columns/m...ts/101223-1100

Best Buy confirmed the news to Variety:

Best Buy confirmed Friday that it is ending sales of DVDs. “To state the obvious, the way we watch movies and TV shows is much different today than it was decades ago,” a Best Buy spokesperson said in a statement to Variety. “Making this change gives us more space and opportunity to bring customers new and innovative tech for them to explore, discover and enjoy.”

SOURCE: https://variety.com/2023/digital/new...es-1235754919/

Just DVDs?

[Jumpman]

Originally Posted by drb999

The final Black Friday for blu-rays at Best Buy

The end of an age.

[Jumpman]

Originally Posted by soaptrail

I totally agree, Discs are generating revenue versus streaming subs which are losing money. I wonder if buying movies via Movies Anywhere retailers is more than a blip on the radar. But discs are shrinking in sales so Studios know they honeymoon is over. We all expect discs to continue to sell but it will not be the cash cow that it once was or even is now. The question is how low will the market fall before it stops. I still buy movies but if I talk to anyone that is "normal" as in not on this forum, they all laugh at me if I bring up buying movies on disc.

Digital sale through, via your digital retailer, is what the studios are going to push HEAVILY, not streaming. Subscription based is a non starter now. It will be part of the revenue stream for the studios but it will not be the be all to end all like they wanted.

[Jumpman]

Originally Posted by rdodolak

Just DVDs?

No. All discs. DVDs, BluRays, and UHDs.

[Fang Zei]

You know what they say about bad news and Fridays.

[starmike]

Originally Posted by Jumpman

No. All discs. DVDs, BluRays, and UHDs.

The quote says DVDs, no mention of blu-ray.

[Monterey Jack]

[BillieCassin]

Originally Posted by Jumpman

Subscription based is a non starter now. It will be part of the revenue stream for the studios but it will not be the be all to end all like they wanted.

That's just not true. I keep seeing people saying this but the assumption is based on their first pass at the business.

There is a reason that everyone and their brother out there wants you to sign up for subscriptions for nearly everything out there, from socks to meal kits to whatever else people can shove in a box and mail, and most software/etc. Subscription-based models are sustainable revenue with generally low turn-over, and in almost all cases people spend more than they would have to begin with.

In the case of streaming, the revenue is quite high - people spending for a year of Disney+, for example, is easily higher than the average they spent buying media before for the vast majority of customers.

The issue was that the streamers spent WAY too much money on new content, giving ridiculously high payouts to lure creators, and spent 100's of millions of dollars on shows that nobody watched.

The only reason streaming "doesn't work" is because they overspent a crazy amount trying to be "king of the hill". Once the dust is settled, and more of them combine into single services, the projections of profitability are still very strong - they just clearly need to correct how much they are spending on new content, or to license old content, depending on the case. Streaming subscriptions are just leaving infancy and growing into toddlers in terms of development of the format, but it will undoubtedly be the dominant revenue stream going forward.

[Jumpman]

Originally Posted by starmike

The quote says DVDs, no mention of blu-ray.

It’s all discs, not just DVDs. All.

[Cliff]

Originally Posted by ChrisLikesBatman

I think the issue is bigger than that. If one of the largest physical media stores stops selling physical media, the studios won't have much incentive to keep making physical media.

Best Buy is the first to go in 2024, but the others will likely follow.

The studios aren’t ready to give up physical media (even Disney is making an about face) and have been (for a little while) trying to formulate how to pivot to different ways to distribute. If that takes the form of more direct to consumer (like Shout! and Vinegar Syndrome) or working more closely with Amazon (which is probably where most of us get non-exclusive releases now anyway) or even shoring up stronger alliances with the boutique retailers (like Bullmoose) is yet to be fully determined. It doesn’t mean physical media consumers are being abandoned… it just means we’re be redirected. That is all.

[Dunemoon]

I visited a Best Buy in Vancouver and was surprised what little they had to offer. Flagship store and all.

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by ChrisLikesBatman

I think the issue is bigger than that. If one of the largest physical media stores stops selling physical media, the studios won't have much incentive to keep making physical media.

Best Buy is the first to go in 2024, but the others will likely follow.

https://www.digitaltrends.com/music/...ing-music-cds/

Last I checked they are still making CDs

[plissken99]

Good, zero reason to ever go there again, that store can die the death it richly deserves. Also to state the obvious, they will soon go the way of Bed Bath and Beyond.

[PowellPressburger]

Like the small space they give physical media is keeping them from stocking other junk

[Jumpman]

Originally Posted by BillieCassin

That's just not true. I keep seeing people saying this but the assumption is based on their first pass at the business.

There is a reason that everyone and their brother out there wants you to sign up for subscriptions for nearly everything out there, from socks to meal kits to whatever else people can shove in a box and mail, and most software/etc. Subscription-based models are sustainable revenue with generally low turn-over, and in almost all cases people spend more than they would have to begin with.

In the case of streaming, the revenue is quite high - people spending for a year of Disney+, for example, is easily higher than the average they spent buying media before for the vast majority of customers.

The issue was that the streamers spent WAY too much money on new content, giving ridiculously high payouts to lure creators, and spent 100's of millions of dollars on shows that nobody watched.

The only reason streaming "doesn't work" is because they overspent a crazy amount trying to be "king of the hill". Once the dust is settled, and more of them combine into single services, the projections of profitability are still very strong - they just clearly need to correct how much they are spending on new content, or to license old content, depending on the case. Streaming subscriptions are just leaving infancy and growing into toddlers in terms of development of the format, but it will undoubtedly be the dominant revenue stream going forward.

You’re absolutely right but there is a catch to this scenario; in order to pay for all of this, the writers, the actors, the budgets…not only will the studios cut down the amount of stories they make, they’re going to raise the prices on consumers. We’ve already seen it. They’ll do it again. With incomes not moving and inflation being what it is, how many streaming services…to keep the churn going…do they really think customers will subscribe to?

This is the crux.

[Fang Zei]

Originally Posted by starmike

The quote says DVDs, no mention of blu-ray.

If it really is just dvd then not only would I not care, I’d actually be happy in a way. It’s 2023 for crying out loud, get a blu-ray player at the very least (they’re cheap now!) and even your dvd’s will look better than ever. I guarantee you a lot of the people still buying dvd’s in 2023 are probably also watching them in stretch-o-vision on their 16:9 tv having no idea there’s a actually a setting for that.

Having said that, I get why blu-ray was simply never adopted in the same numbers as dvd. The sad truth is that if they made brand new dvd’s harder to buy, most of those people wouldn’t upgrade to bd, they’d simply switch to streaming.

[Comicfan]

Very depressing news.