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Forums - Sales Discussion - Blu-rays sale percentage tracking

Vetteman94 on 23 February 2010
Hyruken said:
I will give you an example of why Blu-ray is not taking off and why it won't.

I was in HMV the other day looking to buy some new films. I was with my gf. I bought lots of cheap dvds for £3 each. She picked up District 9 on Blu-Ray and looked at it. She said "i want to see this". I said i had it was a good film etc.. She then pondered about wether to buy it or not because it was £16.99. She then saw across the room the Dvd version of the film for £4.99. She went and bought that version without even thinking about it.

The lesson is most people could not give a monkies about quality they care about the price. For her it was an instinct decision to get the cheaper one and save 60%.
People will not jump to a new format while it cost in some instances 300% more then the older one. They just don't care about the quality difference.

Until you see Blu-Rays and dvd's at the same price it won't catch on.


I'll tell you why that is a bad example,  at Best Buy the movie Gamer is only $16.99 for the Blu-ray version,  but the DVD is 19.99.   



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CrazyHorse on 23 February 2010
Hyruken said:
I will give you an example of why Blu-ray is not taking off and why it won't.

I was in HMV the other day looking to buy some new films. I was with my gf. I bought lots of cheap dvds for £3 each. She picked up District 9 on Blu-Ray and looked at it. She said "i want to see this". I said i had it was a good film etc.. She then pondered about wether to buy it or not because it was £16.99. She then saw across the room the Dvd version of the film for £4.99. She went and bought that version without even thinking about it.

The lesson is most people could not give a monkies about quality they care about the price. For her it was an instinct decision to get the cheaper one and save 60%.
People will not jump to a new format while it cost in some instances 300% more then the older one. They just don't care about the quality difference.

Until you see Blu-Rays and dvd's at the same price it won't catch on.

HMV are a joke when it comes to prices for Blu-Ray titles. They still think they can charge between £20 and £25 for many new realeses with prices rarely ever dropping below £15 long after release. Like you say, no one would pay £15+ for something they can get for £3 depsite the quality difference (I wouldn't and I love Blu-Ray). Luckily Amazon and Play offer Blu-Ray at very reasonable prices (I never pay more than £10 now for a Blu-Ray title) but you're right, until high street retailers start to offer Blu-ray at competative prices then it's never going to be adopted by the masses.



CrazyHorse on 23 February 2010
Vetteman94 said:
Hyruken said:
I will give you an example of why Blu-ray is not taking off and why it won't.

I was in HMV the other day looking to buy some new films. I was with my gf. I bought lots of cheap dvds for £3 each. She picked up District 9 on Blu-Ray and looked at it. She said "i want to see this". I said i had it was a good film etc.. She then pondered about wether to buy it or not because it was £16.99. She then saw across the room the Dvd version of the film for £4.99. She went and bought that version without even thinking about it.

The lesson is most people could not give a monkies about quality they care about the price. For her it was an instinct decision to get the cheaper one and save 60%.
People will not jump to a new format while it cost in some instances 300% more then the older one. They just don't care about the quality difference.

Until you see Blu-Rays and dvd's at the same price it won't catch on.


I'll tell you why that is a bad example,  at Best Buy the movie Gamer is only $16.99 for the Blu-ray version,  but the DVD is 19.99.   

In the UK, Hyruken's example in the norm. High street retailers still charge £20+ for a Blu-Ray title when the DVD can be purchased for £3-£8. The only exception I've seen are a couple of Optimal releases (Pan's Labyrinth, The Orphanage ect) for £10 on Blu-Ray which is a great deal but it is extremely rare to see a Blu-Ray title below £15-£20 here.



Bobbuffalo on 23 February 2010

Blue ray is not the future. Is nothing but the succesor of the Laser Disc. People don't give a damn about pretty images. They just want the content. No wonder why services like Hulu are in the rise while HD TVs sales are flat and the switch to HD met with resistant.

Nobody is going to embrace something they don't NEED.



CrazyHorse on 23 February 2010
Bobbuffalo said:
Blue ray is not the future. Is nothing but the succesor of the Laser Disc. People don't give a damn about pretty images. They just want the content. No wonder why services like Hulu are in the rise while HD TVs sales are flat and the switch to HD met with resistant.

Nobody is going to embrace something they don't NEED.

People embrace things they don't need all the time it just requires public awareness of the product and most importantly it has to be at the right price point.



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Cypher1980 on 23 February 2010
CrazyHorse said:
Bobbuffalo said:
Blue ray is not the future. Is nothing but the succesor of the Laser Disc. People don't give a damn about pretty images. They just want the content. No wonder why services like Hulu are in the rise while HD TVs sales are flat and the switch to HD met with resistant.

Nobody is going to embrace something they don't NEED.

People embrace things they don't need all the time it just requires public awareness of the product and most importantly it has to be at the right price point.

So to summise

More Adverts and slash both adoption costs and media costs of Blu Ray

In other words the Blu Ray consortium should "get the hell off its fat ass and do something"

To be still sub 10 percent vs DVD in a highly favourable sales tracker restricted to top 20 movies 3 years after launch is just pathetic.

Its not Blu Ray's fault (the product is fine), its the fault of the studios and the BR consortium who are desperate to make money off the back of BR at the earliest opportunity.

If something is not done in the next 12 months to push BR to at least 50:50 on these charts then I think BR runs the risk of being condemned to relative obscurity.



nicholasphan on 23 February 2010

if you are in the UK, Amazon is your best bet!



Hyruken on 23 February 2010

I will give a further example then :)

I like to think i buy most of my Blu-Rays in some sort of deal, i.e when they are cheaper.
Sometimes i will buy those from Play who in my opinion are cheaper then the high street.

Now if we look at the charts for Blu-Ray and dvd we find a similar chart, the films in the blu ray chart are in the dvd chart.

But just to pick one out of that list i give you the fast and the furious box set
http://www.play.com/DVD/Blu-ray/4-/9923809/Fast-Furious-1-4-Box-Set/Product.html
Now for that box set of 4 blu rays it cost £38. Nearly £10 a film.

The dvd version of the box set
http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/9923807/Fast-Furious-1-4-Box-Set/Product.html
£15. Or £3.75 a film.

It is this gulf in price that will kill Blu-Ray. The prices for them just seem random and have no pattern to them. With Dvds they do. They come out at about £8 for a new title then a month or so it is in the £3 range. Blue Ray comes out and can be anything from £25 to £16. Then a month or two it is roughly the same price.

Someone else made a good point that the fact so many different companies own the format could mean they will not want to push the price down for it. It seems more complicated this way.

Every now and then you get some ok promotions for Blu-Rays but most of the time those films you already own on dvd. To buy Blu-Ray you must be a fan of films so chances are you do have it already. They need to get the prices down. Blu-Ray is almost in its 5th year right? And in that time the prices have roughly stayed the same, and because of that its share looks about the same.



Vetteman94 on 23 February 2010
Cypher1980 said:
CrazyHorse said:
Bobbuffalo said:
Blue ray is not the future. Is nothing but the succesor of the Laser Disc. People don't give a damn about pretty images. They just want the content. No wonder why services like Hulu are in the rise while HD TVs sales are flat and the switch to HD met with resistant.

Nobody is going to embrace something they don't NEED.

People embrace things they don't need all the time it just requires public awareness of the product and most importantly it has to be at the right price point.

So to summise

More Adverts and slash both adoption costs and media costs of Blu Ray

In other words the Blu Ray consortium should "get the hell off its fat ass and do something"

To be still sub 10 percent vs DVD in a highly favourable sales tracker restricted to top 20 movies 3 years after launch is just pathetic.

Its not Blu Ray's fault (the product is fine), its the fault of the studios and the BR consortium who are desperate to make money off the back of BR at the earliest opportunity.

If something is not done in the next 12 months to push BR to at least 50:50 on these charts then I think BR runs the risk of being condemned to relative obscurity.


It is no longer restricted to the Top 20 revenue only,  it now includes every blu-ray sale now.  It has since about spring last year



drkohler on 23 February 2010

Some numbers for 2009 Switzerland:

DVD 13.5mio units (+3.9%), average price SFr 21.80 (-5.5%)

Blu-Ray 0.65mio units (+242%), average price SFr 33.50 (-18.7%)

Blu-Ray % is expected to triple in 2010 (given sub-$200 players and rapid price decreases in discs)