Futuresource: Blu-ray Outpacing DVD in Western Europe

[zombieflanders]

Futuresource (resulting company of the merger between Understanding & Solutions and DTC) have announced that, according to their analysis, in Western Europe, Blu-ray player sales during the first three years of the format have outpaced DVD player sales during its first three years. This trend is predicted to continue through 2011, or the sixth year of the Blu-ray format.

Jim Bottoms, MD Corporate Development, Futuresource commented, "One of the questions we are asked on a regular basis is how does Blu-ray (BD) uptake compare with the uptake of DVD in the early years, and how do the BD player forecasts look alongside DVD player adoption. Focusing on like-for-like coverage of Western Europe and comparing the first few years of uptake, the early indications are that BD player sales are running way ahead of DVD after the same time period."

The caveat to consider while digesting this information is that Futuresource has included sales of all PlayStation 3 consoles as Blu-ray players. To offset this, they have also included all PlayStation 2 console sales as DVD players, but those didn't come to Europe until after the DVD format was a few years in to its lifespan.

http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=1405

More here:

Bottoms added: “Looking forward BD installations are projected to continue to run significantly ahead of DVD. The timing of the PS3 launch has clearly provided a big boost to the initial uptake of BD; with a number of hot games titles now starting to emerge and console prices continuing to fall we can expect to see continued strong uptake."

“Also important is the competitive retail environment, with high street names vying for market share in BD video player sales. ... Longer term, as player prices continue to fall, title availability grows and awareness increases, BD players will become the product of choice – given the fact that they also play DVD and CD media – and there will come a time when the branded suppliers focus on this higher capacity drive, mirroring the trend we saw with DVD players replacing CD decks.”

http://blocksandfiles.com/article/5566

[basano]

Their next article can talk about how sacd capible audio players have seen a surge in the past 2 years.

[DaveS1138]

Originally Posted by basano

Their next article can talk about how sacd capible audio players have seen a surge in the past 2 years.

nice one.....thats one of the funniest anti-attach rate comments I have seen and one I will be stealing from now on

Same old, same old.....you cant call every PS3 a Blu-ray player. Toshiba were wrong to do it to play down Blu-ray and Futuresource are just as wrong to do it to play up Blu-ray.

[ack_bak]

Originally Posted by DaveS1138

nice one.....thats one of the funniest anti-attach rate comments I have seen and one I will be stealing from now on

Same old, same old.....you cant call every PS3 a Blu-ray player. Toshiba were wrong to do it to play down Blu-ray and Futuresource are just as wrong to do it to play up Blu-ray.

Agreed. But it is much easier to try and convince somebody to buy movies on BD when they already own the player

The true measuring stick will be movie sales from year to year. And we know that Blu-Ray has outsold this year to date what they did for the whole year last year. I suspect we will see similar growth next year as well.

[Sbert]

Originally Posted by ack_bak

Agreed. But it is much easier to try and convince somebody to buy movies on BD when they already own the player

The true measuring stick will be movie sales from year to year. And we know that Blu-Ray has outsold this year to date what they did for the whole year last year. I suspect we will see similar growth next year as well.

One thing that is a stark contract to DVD is the number of titles available in the same time frame. Content as a whole sucks compared to DVD at the same time period - which I think is one of the major problems we see now (along with HDTV penetration in households).

[DaveS1138]

Originally Posted by ack_bak

Agreed. But it is much easier to try and convince somebody to buy movies on BD when they already own the player

The true measuring stick will be movie sales from year to year. And we know that Blu-Ray has outsold this year to date what they did for the whole year last year. I suspect we will see similar growth next year as well.

Very true and I do think its great that there are so many potential Blu-ray players out there....The PS3 has always made this type of analysis impossible though.

Movie sales really are the only way to judge how many people are buying into the format. And I think those numbers are pretty impressive. Certainly they are higher than I thought they would be at this point. To see titles getting 12% of their DVD counterparts sales is very encouraging.

[ack_bak]

Originally Posted by DaveS1138

Very true and I do think its great that there are so many potential Blu-ray players out there....The PS3 has always made this type of analysis impossible though.

Movie sales really are the only way to judge how many people are buying into the format. And I think those numbers are pretty impressive. Certainly they are higher than I thought they would be at this point. To see titles getting 12% of their DVD counterparts sales is very encouraging.

And to see a catalog title in recent weeks like "300" selling as much as 30% of the home video market after being released day and date on DVD is very impressive.

[basano]

Originally Posted by Sbert

One thing that is a stark contract to DVD is the number of titles available in the same time frame. Content as a whole sucks compared to DVD at the same time period - which I think is one of the major problems we see now (along with HDTV penetration in households).

This is my biggest problem with BD (and the other HDM format before its fall). The number of movies is horrible. If this is truly what the studios had in mind for BD (or any optical HDM), then they get what they deserve. BD releases still seem to be around 1/10 of the new releases of dvd (based off of US amazon releases). I dont know who is to blame, or if there is any blame, but it does piss me off. Dont even think they have hit 1 a day yet (in the US), but they should be close (around 800).

[hifiguymi]

Originally Posted by basano

This is my biggest problem with BD (and the other HDM format before its fall). The number of movies is horrible. If this is truly what the studios had in mind for BD (or any optical HDM), then they get what they deserve. BD releases still seem to be around 1/10 of the new releases of dvd (based off of US amazon releases). I dont know who is to blame, or if there is any blame, but it does piss me off. Dont even think they have hit 1 a day yet (in the US), but they should be close (around 800).

The production capacity of BD is still quite small compared to DVD. It's getting better with new production lines being added but it's got a ways to go.

As far as quantity of titles, most the major ones are being released day and date. There is a lot of very small volume titles that come out on DVD every week that may never make it to BD. With a few exceptions, all of the major movies that are coming on DVD are coming on BD.

This stuff takes time. It did with DVD and it is with BD.

[zombieflanders]

Originally Posted by basano

This is my biggest problem with BD (and the other HDM format before its fall). The number of movies is horrible. If this is truly what the studios had in mind for BD (or any optical HDM), then they get what they deserve. BD releases still seem to be around 1/10 of the new releases of dvd (based off of US amazon releases). I dont know who is to blame, or if there is any blame, but it does piss me off. Dont even think they have hit 1 a day yet (in the US), but they should be close (around 800).

For a format that had much stiffer retail competition than DVD did, Blu-ray is doing just fine.