Blu-ray catching on in Australia

It sounds like Blu-ray is ever so slowly catching a toe-hold in Australia, where the format just landed in 5-percent of homes and disc sales crested the 1-million units. Not great numbers, but considering there are only 29 titles on the market there, it's not insignificant either. That's some good news/bad news if you ask us, but consistent with what the BDA has been saying, the growth has outpaced DVD's initial start. Color us cautiously optimistic -- getting into 5-percent of homes a whole year sooner than DVD did is nothing to sneeze at, but let's see how the numbers scale in a country with very similar broadband penetration to the US.

UPDATE: We don't know where The Sydney Morning Herald got its figure of 29 titles from, but readers have let us know there's way more Blu-ray choice in Oz. Thanks, everyone who commented.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 2nd 2009 4:17PM]

29 titles was sarcasm right? Because there's well over a hundred actually.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 2nd 2009 4:44PM]

Seriously -- that 29 figure was taken right from the linked press. Paragraph two -- "Just under 1 million copies of Blu-ray movies have been sold in Australia to date and there are 29 titles on the market, with all major studios planning to ramp up Blu-ray releases this year."

[LostNote Posted Feb 3rd 2009 12:26AM]

Yeah, exactly. One needs only to walk in to their local JB Hi-Fi to see the great number of Blu-Ray available in Australasia atm.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 2nd 2009 6:29PM]

IMO, this is just more BDA propaganda.
I live in Aus and I don't know one single person with a blu ray player other than myself and I regularly look at the available movies at my local stores and hardly anything moves off the shelves ever. Also, my local video shops have ZERO blu rays for rent, not one single movie to be found anywhere.
I read recently that we were 1% here in Oz, I will try to find that link, because IMO and experience, 1% would be closer to the truth then 5%.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 2nd 2009 7:50PM]

I don't know about you but the 3 closest video stores to me (Brisbane) all have heaps of blu-rays. I sell electrial for a living and blu-ray players are selling well enough on their own, plus the decent PS3 sales = easily the potential for the 5% reported. I also know of some dvd/cd stores who over the Xmas period had 15% of their store sales come from blu-ray (and that is out of all sales combined such as cd's, accessories etc) so I'm sure 5% is correct.

It's just a pity the 29 titles is so off, lol.

[Darren Pillans Posted Feb 2nd 2009 6:44PM]

Only a hundred? Look at this!!!

http://www.ezydvd.com.au/blu-ray.zml

Gus, HD-DVD is dead, accept it. Plus, you need to get out more. My local Video EZY has heaps of Blu-rays, growing by the day. Every time I go to JB Hi-Fi the Blu-ray wall gets bigger and bigger. So do the sales.

I know quite a few people with Blu-ray players, actually. Most of them PS-3s. Geez, I'm the AV geek amongst them, and I haven't even got a player yet! I'm waiting for a standalone that plays MP3 and Divx.

Blu-ray is definitely catching on.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 2nd 2009 8:48PM]

Darren, I own blu ray, the HD DVD avatar reads " The Departed", get it, OK?
I stand by what I said, there is none in my area, if that's different in yours, good luck to you.

Ezy DVD is in the hands of the receivers too by the way!

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 2nd 2009 9:28PM]

The following article is up until the second quarter of 08 and blu ray according to statistics was 1.35% of the Australian Market at that time. You can say all your mates have got blu ray players and wish as hard as you want, but I don't believe in the last 6 months with or without the current state of the economy blu has gone from 1.35% to 5%, that's just more BDA spin. Also, him mentioning in the article that only 29 titles are available just proves he doesn't know what he is talking about, spin is all this is!
All I have ever wanted is factual information, something sorely missing whenever the BDA is involved and I wouldn't trust them as far as I could kick them. Blu ray IS growing, I just don't believe these numbers.
(For what it's worth, Big W currently is having a blu sale, I bought Transformers, Eagle Eye and Iron man on Sunday.)

From the article....
"In the second quarter of 2008, 207,841 HD movies were sold, up 7.2 per cent on the first quarter but still only 1.35 per cent of the total DVD movie market, which represented $283.6 million in total sales for the quarter."

http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,28348,24522714-5014239,00.html

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 2nd 2009 11:05PM]

Please fix this article, there have been about 40 blu-rays released just this year. And I did a search on ezydvd and got 0ver 600 results. I know a lot of those results will be coming soon, but 29, please.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 3rd 2009 12:40AM]

nice research SMH!

I own 45 Blu-rays myself and all have been purchased in Aus so there goes that theory...

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 3rd 2009 1:11AM]

Thanks for fixing the article, I knew Engadget wouldn't let me down. The SMH article was so wrong they probably got it from "A Current Affair".

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 3rd 2009 7:05AM]

Love the BD logo over Oz, but anyone notice a state that has been cropped from the map? Oh and yeah 29 titles, what a bunch of tools, I don't own a blu ray player but know there are heaps of titles around, as said over 600.

[(Unverified) Posted Feb 3rd 2009 7:40PM]

Ha ha, It's only Tassie. They probably haven't heard of Blu-ray yet ( just kidding Tassie).

[dj496 Posted Feb 8th 2009 11:09AM]

Where did Tasmania go? Yeah I spose they don't matter...