Nielsen VideoScan High-Def market share for week ending August 10th, 2008
By Ben Drawbaugh 
posted Aug 19th 2008 4:37PM
posted Aug 19th 2008 4:37PM
We had a feeling that August was going to be a rough month for Blu-ray, but we had no idea the Nielsen VideoScan numbers courtesy of Home Media Magazine would be this bad. If you think that being down 26.88 percent over last week is bad, have a look at the revenue, at only 6.89 million we had to go back over three months to fine Blu revenues that low. The obvious reason is that the releases have been weak, but DVD didn't do as badly because of Nim's Island. In a movie you'd expect to see from Disney, Fox's kid title was easily the number one DVD, beating the two week old comedy in second by two to one. Meanwhile, the very same title only mustered 2 percent of DVDs sales and couldn't even sell half as many copies as a much older Batman Begins on Blu-ray. Although we doubt next week will be as bad as this one, we don't expect things to get much better until the fourth quarter, which is when the studios finally start to let some of their big titles out.
The selection of new Blu-ray discs has been pretty poor. I guess the studios want you to go to their big budgets movies that are playing in theaters right now.
Nim's Island tanked on Blu-Ray.
the reason why BD sales are lower in comparison is because of too high pricing.
Films like NIMS ISLAND, are just too high priced, $40 list price is simply too high to drive real volume. Fox needs to lower their initial pricing by $10-12, if they did this, it would allow new release sale pricing which would be very competitive. If a store like best buy would be able to see films on sale for say, $20-22, then more will be sold. end of story. some studios like FOX and others are pricing way too many titles too expensively. Consumers need to send them a signal, say no to high priced BD discs. only buy reasonably priced films/tv content.
ohh the fun our favorite duo would have with this one.... i miss the old days
Drop the price Blu-ray titles and people will switch. We aren't getting enough in return to justify the cost increase. The vast majority of consumers just want to watch the movie. They don't care about the extras. So for them a slightly clearer image and slightly better sound won't make people spend the money.
exactly, you are 100% right. there aint any reason why BD discs cost so much more.
Studios need to learn that for them to fight piracy and digital threat, they need to offer BD at more competitive pricing, which would only be slightly more expensive than DVD, not treat it like Laserdisc 2.0, and charge a hefty premium.
This pretty much wipes out the gains made in the last three weeks.
Poor releases have nothing to do with this. It's not as if DVD is getting releases of major titles that Blu-ray isn't. Blu-ray sales should be growing against DVD sales, period. It should be growing because the proportion of Blu-ray players is growing, and because new Blu-ray owners should be buying titles to replace old DVDs. Hell, I'm still buying HD DVDs and there hasn't been a new release in months (and probably will not be until Trainspotting and Shallow Grave later this year.)
The studios have to make Blu-ray more compelling than it is. I don't think they're doing that. I don't think "Same as DVD, only with higher quality but slightly less chance of actually working on your legitimate player" is a good strategy, even if the Blurons don't have a problem with it.
Actually the reason is very obviously poor titles. The last few weeks have been trash. When blu ray gets good titles the sales spike in the other direction.
Poor titles have nothing to do with this. It's not as if DVD is getting releases of major titles that Blu-ray isn't. Blu-ray sales should be growing against DVD sales, period. It should be growing because the proportion of Blu-ray players is growing, and because new Blu-ray owners should be buying titles to replace old DVDs. Hell, I'm still buying HD DVDs and there hasn't been a new release in months (and probably will not be until Trainspotting and Shallow Grave later this year.)
Remember, holiday season is the $$$ time....wait for it...
I'm really looking forward to seeing how well the year's really popular and great movies like Iron Man, The Dark Knight, Wall*E, etc. end up doing on Blu-ray in the fall/winter. Not to mention the newly restored Godfather set and the bow of the Criterion Collection. I'm sure there are going to be a lot of decks sold just for those titles.
As for recent sales figures, I'm actually not too surprised. Remember, you can't really compare straight across between BD and DVD sales, because the number of titles on BD is a tiny fraction of DVD. DVD overall sales are likely to remain more steady week to week, because there is such a huge sea of titles available, and an almost universal installed base, so any of them could sell a few copies in a given week. For now, at least, Blu-ray is very much at the mercy of the weekly releases giving a large boost or drop in overall sales. I had been buying titles like crazy up until the last month or so, when I didn't get much of any. I think my last big buying batch was during an Amazon B2G1 sale when I picked up a lot of the newly re-released Paramount titles that came back to BD.
Studios have been releasing a lot of junk this month. You only have to look at the release schedule in September, October and November to see they're holding the good stuff back.
Lot of people compare what is going on with Blu-Ray to what went on with VHS when it first came out. VHS movie titles was high, and I remember people complaining about the prices, but times have changed, Blu-Ray maybe the only HD disc format out there, but it's not even close to being the only HD media. Remember when VHS won the war, there wasn't a lot of other choices out there but today, there are tons of choices.
Sony better be real careful with pricing their movies and players too high for too long, because with technology the way it is right now, Blu-Ray could already be on the way out before it even get started.
Ugh...for the last time, Sony does not dictate the pricing of BDs and players, as there are many other members of the BDA. Panasonic, Pioneer, LG, Sharp, Samsung, etc. all produce players and the movie studios decide BD pricing. Why is everyone always putting the burden on Sony? Misinformation. Get your facts straight please.