Even if you and your friends aren’t watching Blu-ray discs yet, many people enjoyed the super DVD format in 2010, according to a press release, citing a Screen Digest report.
Blu-ray sales increased 64.2 percent in 2010, a sign the format is gaining favour among home-entertainment enthusiasts.
Tom Adams, principal analyst and director, U.S. Media, for Screen Digest, remarked in the press release: “This consumer mindset sent Blu-ray rentals soaring and could be seen on the Internet too, where video-on-demand (VOD) rentals jumped 55.7 percent. In contrast electronic sell-through (EST) on networks grew by just 27 percent.”
The U.S. home-video market declined 6.4 percent, looking at rentals and sales. DVD sales fell 15.6 percent, resulting in a loss of $1.5 billion in earnings for studios. DVD rentals fell by 12.6 percent.
The report found video-on-demand sales and rentals “exceeded 10 percent of total U.S. revenue during a year, amounting to 12.2 percent of the U.S. home video entertainment market in 2010, up from 9.6 percent in 2009.”
Blu-ray popularity is expected to escalate. Last month, CNET found Blu-ray disc production worldwide will reach more than 400 million units, a 60 percent increase over 2009 figures.
But streaming films are hurting the prospect of physical discs, in general. Another CNET article writes sales of both DVDs and Blu-ray discs are “expected to decline by $4.6 billion between 2009 and 2014.”
