Blu-ray sales were up 67 percent in 2009
By Ben Drawbaugh 
posted January 18th 2010 5:07PM
posted January 18th 2010 5:07PM
No matter what the benchmark, when you increase the number of households with a Blu-ray player up 76 percent, to 17 million, that's a good year. So what if it is was one of the worst economic times in US history, and that overall home media sales were down 13.7 percent -- not even Blu-ray could fend off that big of a loss in DVD buying -- that is the type of growth that any new technology would strive for in its 3rd full year. We'd just love to hear anyone try and say Blu-ray was fighting for survival with $1.5 billion in revenue in one year, especially when Adams Research estimates the digital download market was only worth $360 million during the same time. Now we're not ones to say that physical discs will ever be what they used to be -- that captive audience is gone after all -- but as fans of the format, we can't help but feel like our ability to enjoy the best quality at home isn't in danger. Especially when during the five week holiday shopping season, Blu-ray player sales were up 44 percent while the overall consumer spending was down by 1 percent.
That's good news indeed. I love my physical formats, specially blu-ray.
@(Unverified)
I agree and it's particularly nice to see a lot of BluRays coming with DVD & digital formats. That helps a lot because let's face it, we have DVD players all over the place, from kitchens to cars... Then it also helps that the players themselves have dropped. I was looking at a Samsung with wifi for $250 but thought why bother when the PS3 is $299. I now see players in the $100 range which makes them more accessible to people on a budget.
I have set my BlockBuster for BluRay and leaving NetFlix at DVD and mainly for streaming.
They would sell a whole he'll of a lot more discs if they were more widely available. I am sick and tired of seeing hhe latest films come out on DVD, with no sight oc them on Blu-Ray.
@Duggie264 What new movie have you not been able to find on bluray?
Last year, the ONLY movie I can name without a BD release was Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail. It was a surprise because the movie led to the highest grossing February in theater history. It was blamed on the target demographic not having BD players. Apparently that's changed, since I Can Do Bad All By Myself is out on BD now.
There were probably a few others, but no major theatrical release.
-Pie
@Duggie264
As the others said, nearly every new release is on blu ray. Also, I just looked at my netflix queue. 83% of it is blu ray.
Disc availability is coming along quite nicely. Now if we could just do something about the price.
I think blu ray has done well considering everything that has happened in the economy, but I still think that new releases are too expensive.
@(Unverified)
With the exception of one 22 dollar Criterion disc, I haven't paid more than 19.99 for a new release on blu-ray in almost a year. Amazon always has good deals (sometimes for 15.99 and 17.99 if you preorder) and (surprisingly) Wal-Mart and Target often have competative prices as well. Best Buy is still stuck in 2008 as far astheir non-sale prices go and Borders and Barnes and Noble actually charge full MSRP (course they do the same for books).
But all in all, Blu-ray disc prices are really coming down. The recent Harry Potter Blu-ray 3 pack with 2 BD's a DVD and a digital copy was 19.99 the day of release at Target. Unbelievably, the single DVD box of the same movie (without digital copy) was priced at 19.99 and thhey sat side by side on the new release end cap.
I say personally the sales went up cause playstation3's everyones gotten tired of xbox 360 ps3 has it all
Several Factor
Only HD format Disk
PS3 Slim
Price of many new blu-ray has drop from $20 release instead of $27+
@techlord
Not to mention you can buy a name-brand BD player for between $100-150 in a retail store.
So what happened to all of those people that said Blu-ray is dead, where are those people? Now that more companies are doing Blu-ray with DVD included and digital copy and cheaper prices, Blu will continue to sell more and more.
@(Unverified)
Blu-ray is dead, its just has time to show groth before it starts to decline like DVD is now... Consider what they pointed out, the increase in Blu-ray didn't counter act the decrease in the over all DVD market, optical media is on the decline, theres no way around it.
Interesting, growth but not a patch on DVDs years of doubling sales year on year.
Interesting too that it looks like this year - and I'd be very happy for someone to prove me wrong on this one - they've chickened out of telling anyone the actual numbers of dics sold over the course of the year.
People get suspicious of their whole marketing BS when they pull stunts like that (particularly as they do mention DVDs annual sales figures).
I don't recall ever saying "Blu-ray is dead".
I do recall saying it would never be the success DVD has been and that it was the worst choice for getting high definition movies on disc out into the mass-market of the 2 then competing formats.
Look what's happened, 67% growth is not even close to DVD at this stage doubling sales year after year after year.
They've even had to slash prices to get even this traction in the marketplace (with all that entails in reducing the incentive for companies to stay with the format......basically it's now almost as 'profit-lite' as DVD) .
That Samsung guy looks to be right (he reckoned Blu-ray had 5yrs in the sun, in late 2008).
2013 seems reasonable as the time when the emphasis will shift.
I expect between the market fracturing between VOD and Digital Distribution etc etc those who say Blu-ray is the last new physical format are right - I wouldn't be at all surprised if DVD was still going strong by then and (easily) out-lives Blu.
@Multiformatmayhem you seem to be upset about something! you're either a hurt HD-DVD supporter or a 360 fanboy. because there is no other reasons to be upset about Blu-ray doing good. let it go the war is over just enjoy the HD movies.
@onQ
Nope, not in the least bit "upset".
I prefer to know the actual true state of affairs (which a definitive number of sales, like they gave last year, would have given).
Not the lying manipulative PR puff.
If anything I'm simply & merely disappointed that we are now left with high definition format which is patently failing to deliver what ought to have been delivered.
Of course I'm enjoying the movies.
But it's crystal clear by now that this is not going to be the ubiquitous product DVD is.
By extension it is also clear that those of us who had hoped to see a disc based high definition format that was be deeply established and last (like DVD has) are going to be straight out of luck.
Oh well, perhaps digital will be the one, afterall once we get to true 2K images there's no way the regular home viewer will 'need' anything more.
when the pirates can make a dvd movie fit on a single 700mb cd and a 720p movie fit on a 4.2gb dvd (ofc using compression but 720p mp4 is still better than a retail dvd)
why didnt they sell legally 720p movies that was compressed to fit on a dvd when the hd times started way back?
HD-DVD still has a fighting chance.. with just a little more marking the sales numbers can be even with bluray.
This is just anecdotal, but it really seems like the holiday season of 2009 is when Blu-ray really broke into the mainstream amongst people I know. Decent players can now be had for 100 to 150 dollars and the movies are routinely being sold for 19.99 or less via Wal-Mart and Amazon. Previously, it was just a very small group of my friends who had Blu-ray players.
But in the last 2 or 3 months that has all changed. 6 of my 25 coworkers got blu-ray players for Christmas this year and several more have come up to me in the last month and asked me which blu-ray players they should buy. These are not videophiles of audiophiles. They are average, moderately affluent 25-50 year olds who have HDTV's and want to fill them with HD content. They like the bonus add of Netflix streaming too but still find Netflix disc rentals to be the most cost effective way to get the movies they want to see.
Its very easy to lose sight that the average consumer is not as tech savvy as an Engadget reader (nor as bored with last years technology). Some might proclaim that physical media is "dead. But with over half of all music sold still being sold via CD over ten years into the mp3 revolution its clear that physical media still has a lot of life left in it (video even more so than music).
The mainstream (which is where all the money is) changes slowly. Physical video formats might finally "die" in 10 or 15 years but in the meantime there is a healthy amount of money to made off of it. It may never be the singular dominating force that DVD was but I think it may just be the most successful format for the next 5-10 years.