Blu-ray Disc sales may be up a staggering
396% in the UK, and the BDA may be
bullish about BD's success in Europe as a whole, but Europeans looking to buy in cheap as we Americans have recently
been able to do may be out of luck (for now, at least). According to a new report from
Reuters, "a scarcity of cheap Blu-ray players combined with the effects of a recession are expected to delay take-up of the Blu-ray format in Europe." It's suggested that supply issues earlier in the year could mean that those relatively cheap BD decks in the US may not make their way to Europe before the big holiday shopping season. Screen Digest analyst Richard Cooper even went so far as to say that these factors "[could mean that] the format is unlikely to move much beyond the early adopter market this year." Granted, no one really anticipated BD going from niche to mainstream by the time
CES 2009 got going, but a scarcity of affordable players sure won't help matters.
posted Nov 26th 2008 9:14AM
BD players currently sell from £150 / €210 up but there is a lot of inconsistency from one store to the next. Some stores are still trying to sell gen 1 players for full price while others are selling very affordable current gen players. Topachat (in France) is selling the Sony S350 for €239, Saturn (Germany) has the Samsung BDP1500 for €229. Richer Sounds (UK) sells the S350 for £170. Keep in mind that European prices include tax so its not far removed from its US price. The market isn't as advanced yet as the US. DVD lagged about 12 months behind in the early days too.
Here in Denmark in the DVD days the market began to take off when players hit around 100£/200$ and everybody got DVD when the chinese players hit 50£/100$.
Currently the cheapest BD player is around 175£/350$, but good BDLive player are far more expensive. Eg. a Panasonic BD-55 is around 3 times that price.
But as Mark says.. Europe is behind and Blu-ray havent really been advertised yet. It is slowly beginning here, but it will take a little time - especially since the advertisement doesnt really mention the benefits, but only mention it is available along as the ordinary DVD. Many can't explain what HD is yet.