Blu-ray sales spike following format war end

Following the end of the HD DVD vs. Blu-ray format war, Blu-ray disc sales have made a significant growth with a few new titles now gaining around 10% of its sales on the Blu-ray format, going by this Hollywood Reporter article.  Walt Disney’s Title "No Country for Old Men" on Blu-ray made up 9.8% of its total sales in just the first 5 days of hitting the shops, going by a Nielsen VideoScan First Alert.  The Fox title "Hitman", who’s Blu-ray version reached #1 in Amazon’s best selling Movies & TV category has generated 12.6% of its overall sales on Blu-ray alone since its March 11 release.

Before the format war ended, the most sales that any title made on a HD disc format was no more than 2% to 3% of its overall sales.  Tom Adams, a Home entertainment industry analyst reckons the ending of the format war has caused this spike in Blu-ray sales and expects this thread to continue throughout the year, particularly as more consumers purchase Blu-ray players and PS3 consoles.  Unlike the time when HD DVD was competing against Blu-ray, consumers can now purchase Blu-ray titles with confidence knowing there is no longer any confusion on which format to choose.

Blu-ray sales are estimated to reach $1 billion throughout 2008 according to Fox market researchers, compared to an estimated $300 million in total between Blu-ray and HD DVD sales in 2007.  Adams predicts that around 2.9 million homes will have Blu-ray players compared to just 500,000 last year.  The PS3 which also doubles up as a Blu-ray player is expected to reach 8.4 million homes by the end of 2008, up from 3.2 million in 2007.

Adams reckons that studios would like to increase their Blu-ray sales due to the higher price tag on Blu-ray discs, which means a higher revenue for the studios.  For example, the average newly released DVD is sold for $20.57 in its first three months, where the same Blu-ray version is sold for $31.31.  On the other hand, from what I can see, this large price difference may be a significant factor in putting many consumers off Blu-ray.  For example, there are many things consumers would rather spend $100 on than just 3 Blu-ray titles that may only get watched a few times each.