02/07/2009

Blu-Ray disc sales have soared to over 3.1 million in 2009, marking a rise of a whopping 231% over last year, according to figures released by the British Video Association (BVA).

Overall however, the home video market has seen a dip of 9.5% with sales down to a 100 million so far in the first half of the year, compared to last year.

BVA Marketing Manager Hannah Conduct said, “The continuing success of Blu-Ray is testament to the growth of consumer confidence in the high definition format. There are now almost 1500 Blu-Ray releases in the market covering a breadth of titles. Seeing is believing with Blu-Ray and the figures show that once consumers have experienced the format, they continue to spend their money on the product.”

BVA Director General Lavinia Carey said, “The home entertainment industry has weathered the recession extremely well during the last year but, sadly, with the loss of around 900 high street stores at the start of the year, following the demise of Woolworths and Zavvi, the sales generated from impulse purchases have been hit. This changing retail landscape has had a huge impact on our half-year result. We hope as the year progresses that new retailers will fill the gap by stocking home entertainment products to give consumers a wider choice.”

“People must also be increasingly tempted to search out methods of downloading illicit content for free on the Internet. With an increasing number of new Internet services coming on stream, the industry is aiming to encourage greater consumer up-take of legitimate downloads,” she added.