Despite the fact that consumer spending on the whole has dipped of late here in the US, it seems that the home video
sector has been able to withstand major setbacks. Reportedly, American consumers spent some $5.6 billion on rentals and purchases through the first three months of 2008, which is just a 0.3-percent drop from the same quarter a year ago. It was noted that Q1's figures were boosted by 400- to 500-percent growth in high-definition disc sales, which amounted to around $150 million. Lastly, it's said that Blu-ray sales accounted for somewhere between 5- and 8-percent of all home entertainment sales for Q1 2008, and of course, demand for Sony's now entirely-more-relevant
PlayStation 3 continues to head upwards. Thirsty for even more stats? Check 'em out in the read link below.
[Image courtesy of
DevotedDVD]
posted Apr 22nd 2008 8:23PM
I'd like to see what the difference is in rentals vs purchases.. I'm betting rental increased significantly and purchase dropped like a mofo.
Its pretty clear that Blu is having a significant affect on rentals which helps get the word out that the PS3 is an awesome Blu-Ray player. This only helps Blu and the usual nay sayers can argue all they want but Blu is slowly growing, as expected, and will continue to until it takes over. Today's available technology easily makes rental stores not required for "new releases" and yet people still rent so things are not as black and white as some people think.
yeah renting is definitely the way to go i just don't see the point of owning movies anymore.
I only rent. It's not worth it to me to buy a movie and watch it maybe once a year.
The writing of the post makes it seem like sales aren't dropping. Perhaps not from a year ago, but I think sales from 2 or 5 years ago have fallen tremendously. Perhaps a more accurate analysis isn't that Home video sales is withstanding the decline of consumer spending, but rather Home Video Sales has hit bottom.