Blu-ray sales up 91 percent in first half of 2009
Due out September 1, the "Gladiator" Blu-ray should do big numbers.
Back in April, we reported that sales for Blu-ray Discs had nearly doubled in the first quarter compared with the year before, according to Adams Media Research. Now the Digital Entertainment Group (DEG) has issued a press release saying that U.S. Blu-ray sales are up 91 percent in the first half of 2009, which indicates that the format is maintaining its growth pace despite the recession.
Blu-ray and digital downloads were a bright spot in the DEG's report. Overall, consumer spending for prerecorded entertainment was down 3.9 percent compared with the same period last year, with net profit down 2.2 percent. However, the DEG noted that spending was up in the second quarter and that higher margin products like Blu-ray and digital downloads had a favorable impact on the bottom line.
"Although consumer spending on sellthrough packaged media was down 13.5 percent in the first half of 2009," the release says, "this was partially offset by the growth of Blu-ray (up 91 percent to $407 million) and digital distribution (up 21 percent to $968 million, which includes $196 million for electronic sellthough)." Additionally, rental spending was up 8.3 percent for the first half of 2009, "boosted by an increase in Blu-ray rental spending, which was up 62 percent."
Comments? If you own a Blu-ray player, what's your ratio on renting vs. buying? And, Blu-ray detractors, do you think digital downloads will make Blu-ray a niche product sooner rather than later?
Hunkered down in New York City, Executive Editor David Carnoy covers the gamut of gadgets and writes his Fully Equipped column, which carries the tag line "The electronics you lust for." He's also the author of "Knife Music," a novel. E-mail David. Follow David on Twitter. 
If the disk doesn't meet those requirements, then I'm all about Netflix (but I have to admit I'm rather annoyed with their lastest upcharge for Blu-ray ... totally unjustified, I think).
I understand supply and demand and I understand that Blu-ray media still costs more than DVD. Clearly, I don't mind paying extra for HD quality stuff nor do I mind paying more to rent Blu-rays from Netflix. However, I think we're paying TOO much now ... the last increase was excessive. Based on all the information I can find, Blu-rays simply do not cost Netflix that much more than standard DVD.
I've had new release blu-rays in my Netflix cue for months at a time before it became available. Maybe if Amazon does buy Netflix. It might get better, but we'll see when that time comes (if it comes).
"With the strong growth in Blu-ray we felt Q1 was the right time to put in place more realistic Blu-ray pricing. We
landed on the 20% to 25% premium for high-definition Blu-ray, which is in line with the high-definition premium
consumers pay in other channels but is less, unfortunately, than the price premium we currently pay to some
studios for Blu-ray relative to DVD. If we can get our Blu-ray cost premium more in line with what consumers are
willing to bear relative to DVD, then we can be much more aggressive in promoting Blu-ray adoption"
...saying that Netflix makes less money on Blu-ray than on DVD, even with the higher prices they charge for Blu-ray subscribers...
Maybe people will finally realize BR is here to stay for quite sometime.
I have no doubt that eventually that one day we could instantly receive ultra hi-def holographic movies over some super-charged version of the Internet sometime in the future. I have no doubt we will all be owning flying cars. But for the here and now, I am enjoying Blu-ray movies on my home theater setup and I will continue buying them, until you tell me there is a better product out there that does it better.
I hated these people at school and I hate them just as much now. The ones who you told them I got a 486 computer would turn their nose at you and say "that's nothing I am waiting for the new super charged 586 model to come out". You carry on living your life for the tomorrow - we like what we have now just fine.
Digital downloads are a joke and the niche.. BR is the future and will be for some time.
I of course Buy my favorite movies on BR.. would never even consider digital downloads/renting of any kind because the quality sucks for both video and audio.
No EULA, or TOS. I can give the CD away if I want, and the quality is better. It's rather nice compared to digital.
Just sayin. Time to step into the 21st century. You either get on board or get left behind.
That's not always true. I have a Pioneer PRO-111FD (the highest rated HDTV on cNet, mind you, with a picture quality of 10/10) and upconverted DVDs look decent compared to Blu-ray. I mean, Blu-ray (of course) wins in overall, but upconverted isn't half-bad.
That maybe true, but a DVD on a HDTV is far better than what I was used to only last were on an old CRT. Color me perfectly happy with DVD at the better price.
Until we get faster uncapped broadband across the entire country digital download will never fully take off. Even if you didn't have to worry about the caps set by your ISP you usually lose most of the HD fidelity when you download a movie anyway becuase of bandwidth limitations. And with having actual discs you don't have to worry about losing the data due to a hard drive failure or data corruption, etc.
Note that these are 99% accurate times. I rounded for my convenience.
I was almost screaming at that computer by the time I was done. That same computer was a perfectly reasonable Intel Core Duo with Windows XP running FF 3.0 (at the time). It has 2gb internal memory and a fairly large hard drive.
Now that BR players can be had for under $100, I'll bet that 91% improvement will skyrocket over the next couple quarters leading up to the holiday season!
And good for you! ... or is your real issue with them the that you can't actually rip Blu-rays?
I like how Blu-ray players can play older DVD's but I don't think the movies should cost more than DVD's. Yeah it's more pixels but it is the same movie.
No it's not the same movie. It's the same dialog, editing, etc., but the picture quality is much better. The PQ is better because Blu-ray discs can hold 5x as much information as DVDs. To do this you need different technology. That new technology costs money, so the prices are higher.
I have a nice 7.1 set up at home and heard DTS-HD Master Audio is enough to knock pictures off the walls....you know....in a good way.
-The actual distribution of DDLs is not standardized... do companies offer streaming, or make you wait for the entire download to finish (which in the case of BR, is several gigabytes)?
-Actual space to store this data comes into question... terabyte drives are inexpensive, but the lifetime of a harddrive (especially cheaper ones) could leave you with a library of movies that you can't watch anymore. Imagine burning all of your movies onto one giant disc, and then hoping it doesn't fail. Will companies allow you to re-download the movie in this case?
-Or will companies keep all the movies centralized, and you watch it from their servers? In this case, bandwidth becomes an issue because if everyone in the world tries to watch the same movie at the same time, I'm assuming terrible things happen. In specific reference to netflix, why are some movies on instant watch only for a certain period of time? The more they do that, the more it becomes like watching regular tv and hoping that my movie is available.
As we can see, these are all issues that need to be addressed (and hopefully standardized such that we don't need to have several streaming, downloading, and snail mail companies), which is why I think that physical discs are going to be around for awhile. All of these questions have already been answered and standardized for physical media... all the customer needs to do is rent or buy the disc and pop it into the machine. In time, if the disc is damaged, the loss is only limited to that one movie.
Hopefully BD doesn't go anywhere. I wouldn't want to spend $20 on a download. I like having something tangible for my money. Just like how I gladly spend $10 instead of $8 to get a CD instead of downloading the music off Amazon. I can make all the high quality backups I want with that.
As others have said above, once you get used to watching true HD and 7.1 uncompressed audio, there's no going back. It's like asking someone who loves their widescreen DVD w/ 5.1 Digital Dolby to give it up for VHS. Not going to happen. But when it was introduced, many questioned who would spend money on DVDs when VHS was "good enough"!
As far as Netflix, I think their latest fee increase for BR is completely excessive and unwarranted.
- by paskunyak July 16, 2009 1:34 PM PDT
- One day about ten years or so from now, everyone who has bought a ton of Blu-ray disks will be kicking themselves when 4k becomes the newer new home video standard. Yes, Blu-ray is vastly superior to DVD, so go out and buy a player and RENT your disks. How many times must you get fooled? You bought the VHS tapes, the Laser disks, the DVD's and now the Blu-rays. I can think of so many better things to spend my money on, and very few worse things.
- Like this Reply to this comment
-
-
- by spurs1999 July 16, 2009 3:00 PM PDT
- When that "10 years from now" time comes I will have enjoyed watching the movies in my Blu-ray collection anytime I felt like it and/or where ever I felt like it. I seriously doubt that people will be "kicking themselves" for spending money on an entertainment media that they will have enjoyed.
- Like this
-
- by tappy727 July 16, 2009 4:48 PM PDT
- Good thing I never bought the laserdisc and VHS tapes. I only started buying DVD's when it hit the right price point. I think the same strategy need to be applied with Blu-ray discs. Come on movie studios, it is the same movie regardless of whether it is 1080 or 480.
- Like this
-
- by repete66211 July 17, 2009 8:01 AM PDT
- One day about twenty years or so from now, everyone who has bought a ton of 4k disks will be kicking themselves when 8k becomes the newer new home video standard.
- Like this
-
Showing 1 of 2 pages (80 Comments)Put it this way. Even if you buy a BR movie for 30 dollars and watch it once a year in your time frame you end up spending 3 dollars a year for it. Halve that to only watching it 5 times in 10 years and it's still only a 6 dollar a year investment. That makes it just as inexpensive as renting. Yes I know someone is going to throw in the Netfix argument. But here is my response to that ahead of time.
I like to be able to watch a movie when I feel like it. Not when I eventually get it from a waiting list. And I like the fact that I can watch it again in a week if a friend comes over to my house or if I just feel like it instead of having to reorder it and wait again. Plus an added bonus to buying a lot of BR movies these days are the fact that they come with a Digital Download copy. Meaning I can load to into my PC and take it with me anywhere without having to spin a disk in the drive and running the battery down faster or load it into my iPhone and take it with me too.
So if you don't feel the need to spend your money on BR disks then more power to you. But those of us who do find it a worth while endeavor.