Sony's in a 'bag of hurt' because of Blu-ray

[SvennoJ]

NiKKoM said:

SvennoJ said:

I don't know if consumers changed that much over time. Sure rental has been replaced by streaming, which also took away the sell through of new and used dvds at rental stores. Yet the number of actual movie collectors, I doubt that has changed. Blu-ray sales are still growing. If more people nowadays don't care about owning movies, then shouldn't it be declining in line with dvd sales?

it actually did change a lot in just 1 year.. just look at the numbers how it changed in one year:



Bluray sales actually only grew 4,2% in 2013 from 2012... it pretty much stagnated... While DVD dropped 14.2%...
http://www.deadline.com/2014/01/with-anemic-blu-ray-disc-sales-home-entertainment-grew-modestly-in-2013/

Even movie studios are releasing digital timed exclusives meaning that the digital version is available weeks before the disc version.. they understand the change that most people don't need and want superior high quality.. otherwise we would have had timed bluray exclusives.

Disneys "Frozen" was available as Digitaly on February 25th but the DVD, Blu-ray wasn't available until March 18th.. thats 3 weeks! its saying a lot how the market changed in a short time

That trend has been going on for a while, biggest shift is from rental and DVD sell through at rental places.
Movies being available first digitally is just another trick to get more money. It's even in the article you linked.

Still, strides in digital-movie sales are encouraging to studios. And a primary reason for the accelerating growth in online sales is the widespread adoption of a new release window marketed as "Digital HD." For one to four weeks before a movie becomes available on DVD or to rent online, studios make new movies available to purchase from digital stores like Apple Inc.

Although some people are now buying movies online who might otherwise have bought a DVD or Blu-ray disc, studio executives said the biggest change is people who would have rented a movie but now, unwilling to wait, are buying it instead.

They understand that people are unwilling to wait. Same reason why home movies don't release alongside cinema versions.

Blu-ray sales percentage is still climbing, although the physical pie is shrinking rather rapidly. And with tricks like timed releases studios are helping it along. And sure why not, $19.99 for a digital release instead of $14.98 for the Blu-ray. The digital release gives them a lot more profit.