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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.
Interact-TV announces 3.75TB MediaPool home media server
While we're still kind of left wondering where the reviews are for all of Interact-TV's previous kit, the company is announcing a new, 3.75TB MediaPool home media server. At this point, the typical conversion into # of DVDs capable of being stored becomes a little absurd: ~750, in case you were wondering. It's also upgradeable to 5TB in a RAID 10 formation -- thanks Hitachi and co. -- and features enough throughput for high definition video. We're guessing that means the MediaPool features HDMI, although since Interact-TV failed to include that basic fact in the press release, that assumption could eventually make an ass out of ... well, nevermind.
Ask Engadget: that's just NASty
It's Thursday night, kids, which means it's time for another round of Ask Engadget. Before we get going, if you'd like to ask Engadget something yourself, hit us up at ask at engadget dawt com, and we'll take it to the court of public opinion. Anyhow, last time Brian C wanted to know how to best RF shield his WiFi; this week we got a short n' sweet one for ya, so consider yourself asked by Serge:I'm looking for a NAS solution and was hoping you could make suggestions. I'm looking for something with gigabit Ethernet, Apache / PHP / MySQL, media serving and a RAID configuration.Kinda sounds more like Serge wants himself a web-hosting solution in a box, but take out the LAMP configuration and you've got a ton of options. Too many, in fact, the market's positively saturated with home NAS and media storage solutions (most, it seems, with RAID). Got any favorites?
