Physical & Digital EST: The Future of Home Video Discussion Thread

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by Cranston37

Isn't this thread meant to discuss Physical vs. Digital, not Blu-ray vs. Digital? And isn't DVD about 2/3 of the physical market? Showing how far 2/3 of the market has fallen in 10 years is hardly pointless...

well, let's have the figures for Digital HD? What's that, sales have dropped to single figure growth? This early in its life? Surely not, Digital HD is the future. It simply can't be true I tell you!

[PenguinMaster]

Here's the numbers for digital purchases:

2011 0.60
2012 0.81 34.61%
2013 1.18 47.12%
2014 1.55 30.41%
2015 1.89 18.10%
2016 2.00 5.42%

They're all lower than DVD and they're rise has slowed down dramatically. At that rate it'll take decades for digital purchases to overtake physical purchases (if ever).

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by PenguinMaster

Here's the numbers for digital purchases:

2011 0.60
2012 0.81 34.61%
2013 1.18 47.12%
2014 1.55 30.41%
2015 1.89 18.10%
2016 2.00 5.42%

They're all lower than DVD and they're rise has slowed down dramatically. At that rate it'll take decades for digital purchases to overtake physical purchases (if ever).

It won't last that long. Studios will lose interest with those types of figures. Subscription is the future for the digital side. Those figures are awful considering the stage it is at.

Basically, without Vudu, it would be minus. That is a HUGE drop off.

[Cranston37]

^ As Steedeel said, you guys are giving numbers for digital purchases but leaving out subscriptions. Consumers don't want to own media anymore, and that's true for physical as well as digital. Heck, sitting down to watch a 2 hour film is probably an activity that is falling in and of itself.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by Cranston37

^ You guys are giving numbers for digital purchases but leaving out subscriptions. Consumers don't want to own media anymore, and that's true for physical as well as digital. Heck, sitting down to watch a 2 hour film is probably an activity that is falling in and of itself.

Well, in that case films may not even exist in 15-20 years.

[PenguinMaster]

Originally Posted by Cranston37

^ You guys are giving numbers for digital purchases but leaving out subscriptions. Consumers don't want to own media anymore, and that's true for physical as well as digital. Heck, sitting down to watch a 2 hour film is probably an activity that is falling in and of itself.

This thread has always been focused on physical ownership vs digital "ownership".

None of the studios want everything to switch to just subscriptions. That would mean only $10-$20 per month per household shared across the entire industry.

There's no way that any studio would ever want their blockbusters to be available with a $15 per month subscription when millions of people are still willing to pay $15-$30 for each movie. On a per movie basis the big money comes from purchases and since digital purchases aren't selling particularly well that means the studios will have to keep making discs.

[Texan26]

Blu-ray sales numbers are misleading because most new releases include the DVD and digital HD code. The average mom would go back to buying the DVD for the lower price if blu-ray did not include both on Disney movies. There's also a reason why Disney keeps rereleasing blu-rays with the digital code. People buy it for the digital HD code. Just in the last two years, Disney has rereleased at least ten titles with digital codes. These are titles that were not in the vault and already had blu-rays currently in stores. Why rerelease with digital HD if they already had a blu-ray only in print? Blu-rays and now 4K need the combos to survive.

[PenguinMaster]

Originally Posted by Texan26

Blu-ray sales numbers are misleading because most new releases include the DVD and digital HD code. The average mom would go back to buying the DVD for the lower price if blu-ray did not include both on Disney movies. There's also a reason why Disney keeps rereleasing blu-rays with the digital code. People buy it for the digital HD code. Just in the last two years, Disney has rereleased at least ten titles with digital codes. These are titles that were not in the vault and already had blu-rays currently in stores. Why rerelease with digital HD if they already had a blu-ray only in print? Blu-rays and now 4K need the combos to survive.

Does any of that matter? As long as combos continue to sell then the studios will continue to make combos.

[Texan26]

Originally Posted by PenguinMaster

Does any of that matter? As long as combos continue to sell then the studios will continue to make combos.

It matters on the numbers you posted. I buy blu-rays and I'm sure many others for the digital code. So the sale actually goes to the blu-ray sales figures. If blu-rays didn't include the codes, I would stop buying blu-rays and always buy directly from Vudu.

[PenguinMaster]

Originally Posted by Texan26

It matters on the numbers you posted. I buy blu-rays and I'm sure many others for the digital code. So the sale actually goes to the blu-ray sales figures. If blu-rays didn't include the codes, I would stop buying blu-rays and always buy directly from Vudu.

Are you selling the included Blu-ray?

[Texan26]

Originally Posted by PenguinMaster

Are you selling the included Blu-ray?

I sell it or give it to a family member.

[PenguinMaster]

Originally Posted by Texan26

I sell it or give it to a family member.

So if you stopped buying Blu-ray discs (and therefore stopped selling Blu-ray discs) then all the people buying Blu-ray discs from you would have to buy them from someone else and the number of Blu-ray discs sold would be exactly the same.

[Texan26]

Originally Posted by PenguinMaster

So if you stopped buying Blu-ray discs (and therefore stopped selling Blu-ray discs) then all the people buying from you would have to buy from somewhere else and the number of Blu-ray discs sold would be exactly the same.

Not necessarily, some people only buy a title because it's at a good price. I usually only get about 50% of what I paid for on eBay. People won't buy it at full retail price. So they may just not buy it at all.

[PenguinMaster]

Originally Posted by Texan26

Not necessarily, some people only buy a title because it's at a good price. I usually only get about 50% of what I paid for on eBay. People won't buy it at full retail price. So they may just not buy it at all.

But you would buy all those digital titles for full price?

It's the same on both sides: plenty of people buy discs because they're cheap and plenty of people buy digital codes because they're cheap.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by PenguinMaster

But you would buy all those digital titles for full price?

It's the same on both sides plenty of people buy discs because they're cheap and plenty of people buy digital codes because they're cheap.

Exactly.

[randian]

Originally Posted by Texan26

Not necessarily, some people only buy a title because it's at a good price. I usually only get about 50% of what I paid for on eBay. People won't buy it at full retail price. So they may just not buy it at all.

What are blu-rays going for (price + shipping) on eBay? I have a bunch of blu-rays I need to get rid of but I'm not sure if it's worthwhile. I have some DVDs too but I presume those have zero value. The big problem is retail shipping and packaging costs have gotten so out of hand that you won't make a dime after shipping and eBay fees unless you can gross at least $6 or so, and eBay takes a listing fee even if you don't sell which makes it even worse. Of course if that's all you're getting there's no point to the exercise.

[PenguinMaster]

Originally Posted by randian

What are blu-rays going for (price + shipping) on eBay? I have a bunch of blu-rays I need to get rid of but I'm not sure if it's worthwhile. I have some DVDs too but I presume those have zero value. The big problem is retail shipping and packaging costs have gotten so out of hand that you won't make a dime after shipping and eBay fees unless you can gross at least $6 or so, and eBay takes a listing fee even if you don't sell which makes it even worse. Of course if that's all you're getting there's no point to the exercise.

Price varies drastically by title (for both Blu-ray and DVD). eBay only charges listing fees if you list more than 100 things per month so there's no risk if they don't sell.

[Texan26]

Originally Posted by PenguinMaster

But you would buy all those digital titles for full price?

I usually don't buy blu-rays at full price unless it's a really good new release so I would do the same for digital. Most blu-rays, I wait till they are $9.99 or $14.99 for Disney titles. Vudu sometimes puts some new releases on sale for $9.99 about 4 to 6 weeks after they come out, so then I just go with them directly. So I would wait for price drops on digital also. But I already buy at full price on some. I bought Rogue One for $19.99. I already preordered Logan for $14.99. So of course, I want to save money.

[PenguinMaster]

Whenever a combo gets split up it means there is one person who only cares about digital and one person who only cares about physical. Why do the digital supporters keep ignoring half of that?

[Texan26]

Originally Posted by randian

What are blu-rays going for (price + shipping) on eBay? I have a bunch of blu-rays I need to get rid of but I'm not sure if it's worthwhile. I have some DVDs too but I presume those have zero value. The big problem is retail shipping and packaging costs have gotten so out of hand that you won't make a dime after shipping and eBay fees unless you can gross at least $6 or so, and eBay takes a listing fee even if you don't sell which makes it even worse. Of course if that's all you're getting there's no point to the exercise.

It usually cost about $2.70 to ship a blu-ray in a bubble envelope. I usually charge $3.00 for shipping. I buy bubble envelopes in bulk. It's hard to get much with catalog titles unless it's some rare title. I'm lucky to get $3 to $5 if anything. New releases, I can get about 50 to 60% of what i paid for. It's getting harder to sell physical media. I've also sold my steelbooks that were worth something two years ago, and average about $10 each on most.