More proof that my prediction of a Blu-ray Christmas is coming true... According to the Blu-ray Disc Association, British consumers bought 462,500 Blu-ray discs in November, an increase of 165% from October. They put out a release with a very positive title that proudly claims, "Blu-ray Beats Recession Blues Sales Soar in Lead Up to Christmas at Even Quicker Rate than DVD".Like I said in my pro- Blu-ray prediction, "I think consumers are looking to escape today's harsh economic climate. Watching movies is a heck of a lot cheaper than going to the movies. People are going out a lot less, eating out less, but they still want some form of escapism and quality entertainment. For that reason, I think it's going to be a very "black" Blu-ray Christmas."
Echoing my sentiments, according to the news release, "Despite the gloomiest of financial forecasts, sales of Blu-ray disc movies are defying the odds and bucking the credit crunch - with record figures reported in the run up to Christmas. And it's not just films flying off the shelves, Blu-ray disc players are also following suit, with a strong upsurge in European sales that is expected to continue into the New Year. In fact, overall sales are predicted to more than triple in 2009, reaching 2.5million units Europe wide* (and that figure does not even include the millions of Playstation 3 consoles, with their in-built Blu-ray players, that will be sold over the next few months)."
It also states that sales figures from the British Video Association (BVA) released in December, show that block-buster Hollywood titles such The Dark Knight sold a whopping 513,000 units in one day with Blu-ray disc representing 21% of all discs sold.What's even more telling in these figures from the U.K. is that the British pound is much weaker against the Japanese yen and since no Blu-ray players are made in the U.K., that means there is a premium paid due to the pound-to-yen exchange rate. The U.S. dollar is also
weak against the Japanese yen, however there are Blu-ray players made in the U.S., including the Magnavox NB500MG9 Blu-ray player which was sold on Black Friday at Walmart for $128.So I expect U.S. sales of Blu-ray players this Christmas to be even better than the United Kingdom. We shall see if my prediction was right when most experts are expecting Blu-ray disc sales to disappoint due to the global slowing economy.
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Yeah right...Blu-ray commands a whopping 8% market share (U.S.). Are you a fan or just a Sony shill ? Blu-ray is destined for the same scrap heap HD DVD went to. If you understood the market you would know consumers are looking toward HD downloads and no optical disc format has a chance. Touche Sony !
8%? Wow, that's better than I thought. I'm not a Sony shill. In fact, I got a Panasonic DMP-BD 35 Blu-ray player for Christmas - not a Sony PS3 with a Blu-ray player. Sure, Sony gets some license fees from my purchase, but not enough to make me a Sony fanboy.
>>If you understood the market you would know consumers are looking toward HD downloads and no optical disc format has a chance
Yes, I know many of the so-called expert pundits are predicting HD downloads will trump Blu-ray, but I highly doubt that. True videophiles like to OWN their movies and build their libraries. They hate renting per movie. Netflix rentals are another story, since it's a flat-rate per month for virtually unlimited DVD/Blu-ray movies. But no person wants to pay $4.99 for PPV movies or whatever the going rate is. I haven't ordered a pay-per-view (PPV) move in 4 years. It's money down the drain, especially when I have a Netflix subscription. Even Stop & Shop's RedBox DVD rental kiosks which offer $1 per movie per day is a better deal than HD downloads or PPV since there are no time restrictions.
Although it isn't legal, I'm sure the youth demographic rips their DVDs and burns their own digital copies to add to their movie library. Much harder to do that with encrypted HD downloads. The bitrates of HD downloads aren't nearly as good as Blu-ray, so don't even tell me the video quality is equal. There's HD and then there's "true" HD.
HD downloads suffer the same problem that pay-per-view movies do in that they are usually time-restricted. So if you want to watch it again, you have to pay again. Many people are loathe to pay for the same thing twice. Why do I want to pay for a movie today and then again in the future when I want to watch it again? That's just stupid IMO.
So you continue to believe the content providers (aka cable companies, satellite providers) and Hollywood that HD downloads is the future. They'll be happy to suck your wallet $4.99 a pop everytime you watch or re-watch a movie. Great recurring revenue for them.