Blu-ray not cashing in on DVD sales plunge

Shoppers who have shunned DVD are not turning to Blu-ray, according to UK sales figures.

DVD movie sales in the UK were down 9.5 percent during the first six months of 2009 – a drop of roughly 10 million sales, according to recent figures from the British Video Association. Meanwhile Blu-ray movie sales were up 231 per cent – a jump of roughly 2.8 million.

The BVA is taking a glass-half-full approach to these figures by focusing on the growth in Blu-ray sales.

"The continuing success of Blu-ray is testament to the growth of consumer confidence in the high definition format,” says BVA marketing manager Hannah Conduct.

"There are now almost 1500 Blu-ray releases in the market covering a breadth of titles. Seeing is believing with Blu-ray and the figures show that once consumers have experienced the format, they continue to spend their money on the product."

The glass-half-empty interpretation is that shoppers are turning away from optic disc formats in droves. For every four DVD movies that UK shoppers decided not to buy in the first half of 2009, they only bought one Blu-ray movie instead.

The recession, including the closure of retail stores, is a key factor in the decline of disc sales, according to the BVA. Internet downloads, legitimate or otherwise, are also having an impact on sales, says BVA director general Lavinia Carey.

"People must also be increasingly tempted to search out methods of downloading illicit content for free on the Internet. With an increasing number of new internet services coming on stream, the industry is aiming to encourage greater consumer up-take of legitimate downloads."

Carey cites forecasts from Screen Digest suggesting that legitimate online video will grow in significance, comparative to growth in physical discs, as a distribution channel and revenue source between now and 2012.