Recently, with Home Media Magazine choosing not to be quite so public with the weekly Blu-ray sales data numbers provided by Nielson VideoScan, its been tough to gauge just how well Blu-ray has been doing. With the economic crisis causing everyone to reevaluate their spending patterns on non-essential goods, the “Year of Blu-ray”, looked quite possibly to be the year that wasn’t. Black Friday (the day after American Thanksgiving) has long been held as a day of importance, both as the official launch of the Holiday shopping season, and the day retailers hope to go from “in the red” to “in the black” for the year. So, how did things go?
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment President David Bishop gave an interview to Home Media Magazine in which he provided at least some reassurance to those fearful of a poor holiday showing for the new format. Some of his key points:
- According to Bishop, the new Sony release of Hancock sold 300,000 copies in it’s first week, including Black Friday sales.
- For better or worse, titles geared toward the PS3 demographic continue to sell extremely well.
- Comparing Blu-ray to digital distribution methods, Blu-ray provides roughly 20x the revenue stream as the digital (download) methods do.
- Many stores were sold out of the sale-priced Blu-ray Disc players by 9:30am on Black Friday, indicating that Blu-ray players were one of the four or five “key” items people are searching for this holiday season.
- Digital distribution is likely to remain a niche market for awhile still, as, unlike music, people want to watch video on large screen HDTVs and high end 5.1 or 7.1 sound systems. Until downloads can provide the quality required to drive such systems, it cannot compete in the mainstream market with packaged media.
- DVD sales continue to decline over previous years
- Foot traffic in stores is down 5-20% compared to last year
- Despite the economic crisis, Bishop expects another 150-300% growth year in 2009 for the Blu-ray format, as DVD sales continue to decline.
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