Steep Increase in Blu-ray Demand, More to Come

During a Blu-ray-related forum held in Taipei (Taiwan), a BDA executive revealed that sales volumes of BD movie discs in the US, Europe and Japan in January-September 2009 increased 183%, 200% and 180% respectively from the same period in 2008. Global demand is expected to further increase as average BD player price drops from the current $193 to the $77 forecast for 2012. Blank recordable media, in turn, are expected to drop from $5 to $1.50. Pricing for BD pickup heads and chipsets, and hence for optical drives for PC, is also expected to drop steeply, thanks to the growing demand for BD players and movie discs, according to Taiwan manufacturers.
Source: DigiTimes | Permalink	Relevant for:

DrrnHarr  » Nov 20, 2009
What will increase demand is a drop in the price of movies. The one stumbling block a lot of people in my attempts to get people to switch to Blu-ray is the price of movies compared to their price on DVD.

squall_line  » Nov 20, 2009

DrrnHarr, the price of movies has come down pretty dramatically from Jan, 2009 to today. Maybe it's the effect of the holidays, or maybe it's the new trend, but BD prices have been releasing at $19.99, and then staying there for a long time, whereas they used to open at $19.99 and then jump to $29.99 a week or three later. It's having a deleterious effect in the short term on the used BD/DVD market, but everything will adjust eventually. The real key is to see what happens to BD prices after the holidays are over, around Jan 20th or so. If they jump back up, then we have a problem. If they stay low, we have a good trend. Granted, I'd like to see them BELOW $19.99, but if new releases are only $19.99, the rest of the lot will start to come down with it.

thedarkangel1975  » Nov 20, 2009
Squall I agree. I have no gripe of new releases being priced at $19.99 when released, but catalog (no ridicolous editions) need to be 14.99 and below. This includes stores like FYE, Barnes and Noble, KMart, and Sun Coast that sell movies at crazy $39.99 prices then wonder why the general public will not buy them and state Blu Ray is too expensive.

jkcheng122  » Nov 20, 2009
We're already seeing Sony releasing new catalog titles at the $15 range with Leon and Mask of Zorro, both of which I preordered right away. Fight Club, not sure which studio, also came out at a very low price. We're starting to see new titles come out at $20 and catalogs at $15. Still a mystery though if it continues past the holiday season.

SethRex  » Nov 20, 2009
Considering Blu-Ray is the only High Def format available, after HD DVD died in 2008, I'm not surprised the demand sky rocketed. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize this.

servocrow  » Nov 20, 2009
EVERY title released is a win for the BR community HOWEVER some titles, esp. UNIVERSAL titles are being ignored if studios keep releasing these (b) titles then the public is going to be less thrilled about upgrading to BR....however I also dont want titles RUSHED that look horrible either sounds like some kind of BOARD (criterion type) quality board, rule of thumb standard should be put in place.

ShellOilJunior  » Nov 20, 2009
If anything, DVD is overpriced. Paying more than $10 for a non Criterion dvd disc is absurd.

neos_peace  » Nov 22, 2009
Shell i'd go as far as saying buying ANY dvd is absurd. :-P

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