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UltraViolet to bundle free movies with Smart TVs and Blu-ray players
The Digital Entertainment Group has announced plans to give away free movies when you buy an UltraViolet compatible device. If you buy a Smart TV from one of the following brands, you'll get ten free movies accessible anywhere UltraViolet titles work; including CinemaNow, Flixster, Nook and VUDU. Blu-ray players will come with five free ones and you can choose hardware from LG, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung, Sony, Toshiba and Vizio -- so most of the big brands. We assume you'll get to choose from any of the 8,500 titles available on UltraViolet from Lionsgate, Paramount, Sony Pictures, Fox, Universal or Warner. The idea of the "UltraViolet Movie Starter Pack" is to expand the user-base beyond the current nine million registered households. This and the 2013 international expansion into Australia, France, Germany, Ireland and New Zealand are expected to push UltraViolet to the next level. That just might be, but if were us, we'd focus on getting that common file format to market and by deploying single sign-on to improve the usability of the service.
Digital distribution up this quarter, everything else, not so much
The Digital Entertainment Group posted its third quarter numbers and digital distribution was up 23 percent, and accounted for an all time high of 13.5 percent of consumer spending on home media. The rise in digital distribution wasn't enough to hold the rest of the home media market flat though as it continued its 2010 slide by 8 percent in the first three quarters of the year -- which is something considering the first six months were only off 3.3 percent. Even with the third quarter decline, Blu-ray is still up 80 percent on the year when compared to the same period in 2009, which amounts to a cool billion in total. This dwarfs electronic sellthrough (mostly iTunes) at $432 million, which is a 37 percent increase over the first nine months of 2009. This was enough to keep DEG's pres' Ron Sander optimistic stating "While we continue to encounter tough market conditions, there are a number of positive trends emerging, particularly in some of the industry's key growth areas ... Blu-ray continues to show strong growth in every category, new release packaged media sellthrough is up, and digital distribution is gaining significant momentum as we move into the fourth quarter." Making less than last year is never fun, but all things considered, it's hard to complain about only making $6.5 billion (that's with a B).
Blu-ray and digital distribution not enough to hedge DVD's 2010 decline
Despite 2009 being the best box office year of all time hitting a record $10 billion, the Digital Entertainment Group has announced that the home media market continues to lose ground when compared to last year. The first six months of 2010 still managed to earn $8.8 billion for Hollywood, which is still a lot, but it is down 3.3 percent when compared to the first half of 2009. This is despite the fact that Blu-ray revenues were up 83 percent over the same period hitting a new record of $982 million for both sales and rentals. And digital distribution was also up to new heights gaining 23 percent and hitting the new record of $1.1 billion (which includes sales and VOD). Sales were actually almost flat in the second quarter, but it would've taken a lot to make up for the lost ground in the first quarter. This is obviously a white whine as not many industries would complain about only earning over a billion dollars a month and actually transactions were up 2.3 percent, which does indicate there might be a trend towards renting vs buying during hard economic times. The 30 day value rental window imposed by Warner and others might help explain why the second quarter fared better than the first, but one quarter alone isn't enough to call the practice a success. Full release with many more details after the jump.
Blu-ray and Digital delivery up, but overall home media is down
For most 2009 was a bad year for business, but the first quarter of 2010 was still worse for the home media market by 8 percent according to the Digital Entertainment Group. Obviously the home media market is highly dependent on the movies released in the theater a few months before, but the studios still hoped that Blu-ray and digital delivery could at least keep things flat. The good news is that Blu-ray movie sales in the 1st quarter were up 74 percent compared to the same time frame last year and rentals were up 36 percent, while at the same time Blu-ray player sales were up 125 percent and digital delivery was up 27 percent to $617 million. While the first quarter wasn't that bad in the grand scheme of things, all eyes will be on the second, because if you can't have a red letter month when Avatar is released, can you ever? Show full PR text HOME ENTERTAINMENT HAS PROMISING FIRST QUARTER FUELED BY BLU-RAY SALES Blu-ray Disc Software Sales Up 74 Percent Blu-ray Disc Set-Top Sales Up 125 Percent Digital Distribution Up 27 Percent LOS ANGELES (April 15, 2010) – Blu-ray Disc software sales continued to rise in the first quarter of 2010, up 74 percent compared to the same period last year. Consumer spending for the first quarter in the home entertainment window for pre-recorded entertainment, which includes DVD, Blu-ray Disc and digital distribution, was $4.8 billion, down eight percent compared to the same period last year. These and other U.S. sales figures for the home entertainment industry were released today by DEG: The Digital Entertainment Group. According to the DEG, with input from all major motion picture studios, Blu-ray Disc software continued to see significant growth in the first quarter with sell-through up 74 percent and rental up 36 percent, compared to the same period last year. Total rental was down 14 percent in the first quarter, largely as a result of brick and mortar store closures, according to Rentrak Corporation's Home Video Essentials. The DEG also announced that Blu-ray Disc hardware sales experienced remarkable growth, with set-tops up an astounding 125 percent versus first quarter 2009. Additionally, digital distribution, which includes electronic sell-through (EST) and video-on-demand (VOD), grew a combined 27 percent to $617 million in the first quarter compared to the same period last year. While the industry faced tough comparisons to the first quarter of 2009, the home entertainment category performed extremely well in March 2010 compared to March 2009, with consumer spending on home entertainment up two percent for the month, consumer spending on sell-through up four percent, consumer spending on digital up 35 percent, and Blu-ray Disc software sales up a staggering 124 percent. The DEG also noted that the Easter holiday often sees a spike in gift buying, which helped to fuel March sales. "We are still facing a challenging environment but are very pleased to see positive indicators of stabilization in our overall business," said Ron Sanders, President, DEG and President, Warner Home Video. "We are encouraged to see consumers continue to realize the tremendous value of Blu-ray and growing more comfortable with digital delivery." The DEG compiles quarterly sales data for various products within the home entertainment category, including Blu-ray Disc, DVD and HDTV. The industry association compiles its data based on input from member companies, retailers and industry association tracking sources. Consumer spending for sell-through packaged goods exceeded $2.5 billion for the quarter, while packaged goods sales in the first quarter were off 11 percent, according to industry data. During this period last year, national retailer Circuit City was undergoing its chain-wide liquidation which included releasing unexpected quantities of DVD and Blu-ray Disc titles in the market. According to the Nielsen Company, the impact of Circuit City's liquidation significantly affected comparisons to sales for first quarter of 2010. -more- DEG: The Digital Entertainment Group␣9229 Sunset Blvd., Suite 405, Los Angeles, CA 90069␣310-888-2201␣www.degonline.org DEG 1Q 2010 2-2-2 BLU-RAY DISC SEES SIGNIFICANT GROWTH While sales of Blu-ray Discs topped 74 percent, some 34 million Blu-ray Discs shipped to retail, according to figures compiled by Swicker & Associates on behalf of the DEG. This is growth of 72 percent over the same period last year. Household penetration of all Blu-ray Disc compatible devices, including set-top players, PC drives and PlayStation 3 consoles has now reached 18 million U.S. homes. HDTV SALES EXPERIENCE MORE GROWTH According to figures compiled by the DEG based on data from CEA, retailers and manufacturers some 75 million HDTVs have sold to consumers. With some 4.7 million HDTVs selling in the first quarter, U.S. household penetration is at approximately 50 million. Nearly 34 percent of all HDTV owners have more than one set. DVD PLAYER SALES REACH 94 MILLION According to figures compiled by the DEG based on data from CEA, retailers and manufacturers, more than 94 million DVD players sold to U.S. consumers in the first quarter of 2010. Since launch in spring 1997, some 280 million DVD players, including set-top and portable DVD players, Home-Theater-in-a-Box systems, TV/DVD and DVD/VCR combination players, have sold to consumers, bringing the number of DVD households to approximately 91 million (adjusting for households with more than one player). The DEG estimates that some 67 percent of DVD owners have more than one player.
Blu-ray sales were up 67 percent in 2009
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.
Digital Entertainment Group reports disc revenue's down, transactions up
The latest DEG numbers reporting the 3.2 percent decrease in disc revenues this year over last, weren't really that interesting to us. Sure some might argue that is actually good considering overall consumer spending, but what is really interesting is that the number of transactions (sales and rentals) are up 6.6 percent. This should probably be interpreted as rentals are up while sales are down, but the bottom line is that more people then ever are still watching movies on round discs. All of this added together with the latest DRM technologies coming, makes us wonder what the home media landscape will look like in a few years. One thing is for sure, it seems Blu-ray has given packaged media the life extension that the studios had hoped for.
Blu-ray celebrates 91 percent sales increase for first half of 2009
Remember back in May when Blu-ray sales were reportedly up 72 percent for 2009? Turns out the high definition disc business is doing even better than that. The Digital Entertainment Group is reporting a 91 percent sales increase year-on-year, totaling $407 million, for the first six months of this year -- an impressive feat, especially in this recession climate. Blu-ray rentals, too, saw a 61 percent increase, and on the less tangible side of things, digital distribution rose 21 percent. Despite all this, the report noted that overall consumer spending on prerecorded entertainment dropped 3.1 percent, and net profit down 2.2 percent... come on UMD, pick up the slack.
Blu-ray moved 63.2 million units in 2008
The Digital Entertainment Group released a few numbers from 2008 that caught our attention. The most notable is that while the shipment of DVD units -- whatever that means -- was down almost 15 percent in 2008 to 1.4 Billion, Blu-ray shipments were up 250% to 63.2 million. Overall this still only works out to about 4.5 percent market share for Blu-ray in 2008, but this is still moving in the correct direction for HD fans. This works out to about 6.3 units sold per player since the DEG also says there are now 10 million Blu-ray players (including PS3s) out there with 3 million of them being sold in the 4th quarter.
Blu-con 1.0 talks where Blu-ray has been, is going
Billed as a one-day summit for Blu-ray developers, marketers and producers, Blu-con 1.0 will feature "experts" (whether that includes the many people who have so thoughtfully and eloquently shared their opinions in our comments since the start of the format war we have not been able to determine) discussing the various issues and opportunities presented by the format. The $325 ticket price for the December 8 event shouldn't be much of an issue, the conference is only open to DEG members, sponsors and invited guests, we'll wait and see if anyone comes out of it with the secret to lower priced Blu-ray players or more interesting uses for BD-Live.
U.S. DVD sales slip 3.6% in 2007
Even as Blu-ray celebrates the future, our present format leader, DVD, had a noticeable sales slippage in 2007. Following a slide in the amount of DVD player sales this should surprise no one, but may give insight to Warner Bros. reasoning in abandoning its dual-format release schedule. A drop in U.S. spending on DVD purchases by 3.6% according to DEG wasn't as bad as expected but studios are definitely looking for the next big thing to make up for DVD's lack of growth.
Digital Entertainment Group to distribute HDTV Guide
As much as we like to argue debate HD DVD Vs. Blu-ray or LCD Vs. Plasma, we are all on the same page when it comes to HD. Some think that it's important for consumers to understand HD, but understanding a technology and seeing the value in a technology are not necessarily the same thing. Either way; spreading the HD word is always a good thing and the DEG is preparing a HDTV Guide to help get the word out and it is supposed to be format neutral.The odd part is the comment about HDMI, "Only 11% believe they are using an HDMI connection for their sets. An HDMI connection is needed to get the best digital picture and ensures the signal will always be in high-def." This sounds more like the DRM Nazis to me than anything else. We have seen that sometimes component looks better than HDMI, but regardless we try to never say always.
