21/08/2007

The home entertainment market in the UK received a timely boost from untimely inclement June weather. Consumers purchased 38.5% more DVDs this year and rented 4.7% more titles than in June 2006. The British Video Association (BVA) while announcing these figures attributed this to strong new releases like the British comedy Hot Fuzz [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and children’s title Charlotte’s Web, coupled with the wettest June on record.

Overall in the first six months of 2007 DVD sales rose by 12.6% with consumers taking advantage of low prices and a plethora of new product. In all, 108 million DVDs were sold through the end of June, amounting to about four per household. The value of DVD sales climbed by 25.7% that month, making it the highest growth rate since April 2006, when Chronicles of Narnia and King Kong were released.

As usual, film product has dominated DVD sales and specialist retailers like HMV and Virgin produced their strongest performance of the year in June, accounting for 32.5 % of all video sales for the half year. In addition, supermarkets accounted for 33.8 % of all sales.

Universal’s Hot Fuzz was by far the best selling title in June, with over 933,000 copies sold and Paramount’s Charlotte’s Web ranked second with nearly 300,000 units sold. Sony’s Casino Royale [+see also:
trailer
film profile] remains a bestseller and it topped the 2.2 million unit mark to make it the top DVD title for 2007.

The BVA half-yearly report also notes that demand for rental via on-line services is up 5.3% since the beginning of the year and up 8.4% in the last 12 months.

Lavinia Carey, director general of the BVA, said, “DVD continues to prove its strength as a format and demand from customers keeps rising. Particularly encouraging is the growth in the rental sector, June seeing the first uplift in 12 months. We’ve got some excellent releases to look forward to in the coming months, so expect the trend to continue into the second half”.