2009 Blu-ray Sales Metrics Stats: Nielsen/Videoscan/HMM Charts/Ratios/Bestsellers Etc

[Kosty]

It's not a ridiculous statement. Most people are not going to take the time and read the small print to make sure where the special features are located. As if special features were ever a big selling point. They probably also don't even realize they are getting a BR much less know what to do with the BR version. I seem to remember the latest polls still show consumer confusion when it comes to BR. Hell I still remember seeing people returning movies at BB during the format war. They couldn't even tell the difference between a or DVD. J6P, you know the ones that are still buying DVDs? Are not as tech savy as some here.

Would this sticker help?

[mikemorel]

Blu-ray's biggest studio supporter speaks of his disappointment with blu-ray sales, from Businessweek.

Disney's Iger: Blu-ray Sales "Not as Much as We Would Have Liked

Trust Bob Iger to tell it like it is, while the rest of Hollywood sugar-coats the obvious. The Walt Disney Co. (DIS) CEO, who first broke ranks with fellow media moguls to say that falling DVD sales was due to more than just the recession, now is sounding warning signals that DVD’s next generation Blu-ray discs also may fall short of the mark.

Speaking before a gathering of lawyers at a symposium at USC today, Iger all but predicted that Hollywood’s hopes for a boost in DVD sales from the new high-definition discs could never offset the continued fall of traditional DVD sales.His reasoning: folks who love to collect DVDs already have 80 or so in their libraries, the new Blu-ray machines are “backward compatible” (meaning that they can play the standard DVDs) and folks simply aren’t going to go out and replenish those libraries as they did when the DVDs first replaced VHS tapes. “We have seen some but not as much as we would like,” he told the gathering.

Try to get other executives in Hollywood to say the same thing. But then again, Iger seems to have a far more realistic outlook for the film business anyway. The business of making films and other entertainment, he says, has fallen prey to the many more choices that folks have to entertain themselves these days. As proof, he trots out the experience of his 11 and seven year old sons, who he says “are the best laboratory I know.” His kids, he says, would be just as happy to “play free casual games all day long.” Other folks have even more things to divert their attention, he says.

Apparently Disney considers blu-ray a flop.

[mikemorel]

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/ente...dio-chief.html

The average household with a DVD player has amassed 80 titles, Iger said, but the era of such libraries "already has waned." Although the new-generation Blu-ray DVDs offer high-definition images and enhanced sound, the players also work just fine with the old discs — so consumers don't feel any urgency to replace their entire video catalog, Iger said.

Yep. Sure sounds like Disney considers Snow White on blu-ray a flop.

Of course, blu-ray supporters will simply say Iger was wrong, that they somehow know better than Disney, that Iger doesn't know how much Snow White has sold.

[towergrove]

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/ente...dio-chief.html

Yep. Sure sounds like Disney considers Snow White on blu-ray a flop.

Of course, blu-ray supporters will simply say Iger was wrong, that they somehow know better than Disney, that Iger doesn't know how much Snow White has sold.

Im sorry can you show me where he specifically indicates that Snow White was a flop. I believe I am missing that part?

[motion]

Iger never really does say that Snow White is a flop, just Blu ray in general.

[Sbert]

Blu-ray's biggest studio supporter speaks of his disappointment with blu-ray sales, from Businessweek.

Disney's Iger: Blu-ray Sales "Not as Much as We Would Have Liked
Apparently Disney considers blu-ray a flop.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/ente...dio-chief.html

Yep. Sure sounds like Disney considers Snow White on blu-ray a flop.

Of course, blu-ray supporters will simply say Iger was wrong, that they somehow know better than Disney, that Iger doesn't know how much Snow White has sold.

Iger never really does say that Snow White is a flop, just Blu ray in general.

Clearly Blu-Ray has underperformed according to predictions YEAR AFTER YEAR. Thusly, it is only fair to assume that BD has not performed as any of the studios have hoped.

However, that is doesn't mean that BD is/was/will be a flop, nor snow white for that matter.

Let's be a little realistic here. Is that too much to ask from you, Mike?

[h0mi]

Couple of comments.

The studios had to understand that as long as blu-ray was backwards compatible, convincing people to rebuy a movie on blu-ray that they already owned on DVD was going to be a hard sell. They should already know this given their experience with releasing multiple editions of DVDs as it is. Even with the transition from VHS to DVD, while a number of people did re-buy certain titles, everyone did not rebuy all of their VHS titles on DVD. So if the studios expected everyone who owned a DVD copy of a given movie to rebuy it on blu-ray, that was just crazy to expect that.

If they expected 20% to rebuy and only 10% did... that might be explained by any or all of these- "need more blu-ray players" and "need cheaper blu-rays" and "need more blu-ray movies" and "need more/better blu-ray content" (including better encodes of the movies).

Regarding this:

Speaking before a gathering of lawyers at a symposium at USC today, Iger all but predicted that Hollywood’s hopes for a boost in DVD sales from the new high-definition discs could never offset the continued fall of traditional DVD sales.

Revenues peaked in 2004, remember? DVD sales peaked 2 years later in 2006 but never offset the loss of VHS rental revenues. And now DVD sales are crashing through the floor.

The businessweek article points out a few things about where Iger is going with this, and it looks to me like Disney is noting where a big problem is- releasing a # of movies on the market and have performing titles subsidize poorly performing ones; high sales of a specific title creates enough revenues so that titles that don't make money don't bankrupt the studio/label. It seems that Iger recognizes that as the home market changes, Disney can't keep doing that- releasing, say 50 movies a year and it being acceptable that say 20 make enough money to offset the losses in the other 30. Thats what I get out of this:

A few years back, if a film flopped at the box office, it might still make back a chunk of its expenses on DVD sales.

No more, Iger seems to be saying. That why, he says, he began a major overhaul of Disney’s studio. It produces fewer films, is looking to keep costs down, and has focused of brand name producers who cut through the clutter of other filmmakers and might even bring gamers like his sons to the movie theaters.

And finally there's this comment:

That puts the entertainment business in the unenviable position of facing up to the fact that “the opportunities to monetize its content are not what they once were.” Yup, Bob, you said it. DVD sales this year are likely to be off more than 9%, continuing a slide that began two years back. If Iger’s right, those sales won’t likely fully return. And no one thinks that online sales of movies will make that up anytime soon.

Nobody except for Mike Morel.

[GizmoDVD]

In this case many or most consumers did know the versions contained both DVD and Blu-ray Discs.

There was a additional promotional sticker on the bottom left corner of the very front of Blu-ray package in bright red and orange/yellow that said this product also contains a DVD, and a sticker on the DVD version that said its a great value as a Blu-ray version is also included. Besides the packaging.

The DVD back and the Blu-ray back of the cardboard slipcase were identical except that the DVD had extra artwork of a bunch of the dwarfs faces to make the artwork taller to fit the DVD package size.

You obviously did not take the time to see it at retail. I know for a fact it was on the Wal-Mart stockage as I saw it myself. I was told the same sticker was on the inventory at other major brick and mortar retailers.

No mistake for consumers that saw that sticker at all on the lower right corner of the front of the cover art.

Sticker for the DVD version......................Sticker for the Blu-ray version

I have both the DVD and Blu-ray 'style' of the Snow White and both my copies have that sticker. However, neither one says that the Special Features are only on the Blu-ray. The only way to know that is to flip the case over and read the very tiny print that says so through the mess of Special Feature listings. Of, course, that's 1 sticker out of the 3 or 4 present (Advertisement for Frog movie, price sticker etc.). Not sure how you think a sticker indicating a Blu-ray was included would all of the sudden make people realize that the special features would be on the Blu-ray. I see stuff all the time indicating a Digital Copy and/or DVD is also inside but I don't check to confirm the Special Features are on those discs and not the Blu-ray (though MGM is very tricky with that as well).

You're making an assumption that after consumers have been trained for 10+ years that they take the time to read the back of the case to make sure the special features are on the DVD like they have been for the previous 50-500 DVDs they've owned/rented.

[Malanthius]

You seem to be trying awful hard to discredit the Blu-ray sales of this title and chauk it all up to poor ignorant consumers getting bamboozled by the evil Blu-ray pushing Disney corporation to trick them into buying and actually bringing a dreaded evil spawn Blu-ray Disc across the threshold into their innocent DVD using household.

Look at the packaging. Even if it was placed with other DVDs, it seems clear that most consumers would notice that the three disc set had Blu-ray Discs in it and it did not bother them one bit.

I wasn't even trying. Actually I was talking about features and consumer confusion. I wasn't even thinking about sales! You seem to be trying very hard at turning my comments into something I never said.

[Malanthius]

Would this sticker help?

What does that have to do with what we were talking about? Special features remember?

[Malanthius]

Blu-ray's biggest studio supporter speaks of his disappointment with blu-ray sales, from Businessweek.

Disney's Iger: Blu-ray Sales "Not as Much as We Would Have Liked
Apparently Disney considers blu-ray a flop.

"Speaking before a gathering of lawyers at a symposium at USC today, Iger all but predicted that Hollywood’s hopes for a boost in DVD sales from the new high-definition discs could never offset the continued fall of traditional DVD sales.His reasoning: folks who love to collect DVDs already have 80 or so in their libraries, the new Blu-ray machines are “backward compatible” (meaning that they can play the standard DVDs) and folks simply aren’t going to go out and replenish those libraries as they did when the DVDs first replaced VHS tapes. “We have seen some but not as much as we would like,” he told the gathering."

I like this part the most. It's what I've been saying all along. Only to be shot down and told that I am wrong by a few here. Well I guess Iger is wrong too uh? Actually to be fair I'm only happy to see him say it for some sort of vindication. The fact that it's happening is sad as I did have hope that some sort of physical HD format would be as sucessful as DVD. Alas that hope is fading...

[Kosty]

Originally Posted by Malanthius
It's not a ridiculous statement. Most people are not going to take the time and read the small print to make sure where the special features are located. As if special features were ever a big selling point. They probably also don't even realize they are getting a BR much less know what to do with the BR version. I seem to remember the latest polls still show consumer confusion when it comes to BR. Hell I still remember seeing people returning movies at BB during the format war. They couldn't even tell the difference between a or DVD. J6P, you know the ones that are still buying DVDs? Are not as tech savy as some here.

Besides GizmoDVD, you just mentioned consumers not knowing they were getting a DVD and Blu-ray in their combo packs. I maintain that is unlikely and that you overstated that issue.

Hers's the DVD packaging again.

Even if they did not notice that the majority of special features were on the Blu-ray, its seems unlikely they would be really upset as the back of the DVD slipcase makes it very clear. Again if they really wanted to see the Blu-ray special features they could buy a $128 Blu-ray player now to do so.

Thats by design. Disney is trying to encourage families to do just that.

Since in this case, the price for this combo package is less than many or most Disney releases and many day and date DVD titles, its likely most consumers would perceive the Blu-ray as a free bonus and the combo set as a fair value.

[GizmoDVD]

Besides GizmoDVD, you just mentioned consumers not knowing they were getting a DVD and Blu-ray in their combo packs. I maintain that is unlikely and that you overstated that issue.

Hers's the DVD packaging again.

Even if they did not notice that the majority of special features were on the Blu-ray, its seems unlikely they would be really upset as the back of the DVD slipcase makes it very clear. Again if they really wanted to see the Blu-ray special features they could buy a $128 Blu-ray player now to do so.

Thats by design. Disney is trying to encourage families to do just that.

Since in this case, the price for this combo package is less than many or most Disney releases and many day and date DVD titles, its likely most consumers would perceive the Blu-ray as a free bonus and the combo set as a fair value.

Aside from the "2 - Blu-ray" consumers would be unknown that the Special Features were only on the Blu-ray. Again, they would have to literally read the entire back to hopefully gleam that information. Not sure where that last image came from as my 'DVD' does not have that anywhere attached to it (I assume its for retailers? I didn't see it anywhere at Target)

[zerosaiyaman]

Price would be a fair comparison for something like this. Since the set was $179 'on sale' the first week of release vs $10...well, you can't really inflate the numbers that much to make it look good in HD DVDs favor. I can't imagine very many of these were sold at that price.




HDTVs were not only made and sold in 2009 but several years ago. People could already have a HDTV and not feel the need (or have to money) to spend $100-$130 on an additional piece of hardware. I deal with people and their credit all day long and I can see that people who used to make 90k in 2007 now make 25-30k. Yet they still have to pay their house payments, car payments, bills etc on making less money. And with everything else going up in price and shrinking the size od food products it means people have to spend more to get less.

If $128 was not 'earth shattering' then why are people not buying those players right now? Wal-Mart has stacks of them as does Best Buy. Even LG and Samsungs are creeping down to $150. If its such a small amount why are people not buying? Could it be...because they can't afford it?

Price doesn't matter if we're talking about how each sale increased the HD-DVD to DVD reported sales ratio due to the bundling, the same as with this Snow White :P.

Eh? Who's saying the players aren't selling well? Where's the sales trends to back up your point? For that matter, what would "well" even be? What would be a goal post for "well" verses "ok, or "alright", or "terrible"? I'd propose, we'd have to compare current blu-ray sales with their year matched DVD player sales, and if blu-ray is in step, then it's doing well, better then it's great, and so forth.

Still, the world isn't that badly off, economically. Not /yet/ anyways, though we may still get there, and then all this will be moot... If we get so economically depressed that blu-ray players, for $128 can't sell, then we are screwed in far more ways than the movie industry dude.

But what is the point you are trying to make? Blu-ray is selling just fine, so obviously there's nothing to talk about economy wise other than speculate how much better it would be doing if the economy is having a slowing effect on its growth.

[zerosaiyaman]

As someone who managed a video game store you would be surprised how many people bought a PS2 game for their Xbox or a Gamecube game for their PS2. Or the ever famous "i'll take mario bros for the PS2 please".

And how often do people not do that, and go in there, browse, and get exactly what they want? We pick out the odd events, so they seem inflated. But, be interesting to actually look at the percentage of times that happens .

People can be silly and ridiculous, but they usually aren't that bad. And if they are on mass making mistakes, then we'd get an on mass return rate of said mistaken items. Or, a sales rep straightened them out ahead of time, as you did in your store.