Blu-ray Disc Sales Rise 91% to $407M in First Half of 2009

Sales of Blu-ray discs rose 91 percent to $407 million in the first half of 2009, according to the Digital Entertainment Group (DEG). Nearly 20 million Blu-ray discs shipped in the second quarter alone.

Blu-ray hardware sales surpassed two million units in the first half, marking nearly 25 percent growth over the same period from 2008. According to DEG, there are nearly 11 million Blu-ray devices in homes in the U.S., including PlayStation 3 consoles. Nearly 75 percent of those units are BD-Live compatible.

Managed copy is coming to Blu-ray in 2010, allowing consumers to legally make one copy of each Blu-ray disc they own. However, there won’t be Blu-ray players that allow them to do so until the first or second quarter of 2010.

"Despite an extraordinarily challenging marketplace, the home entertainment sector continues to be remarkably stable overall, particularly with the growth of higher margin businesses like Blu-ray and digital distribution," says Ron Sanders, who is president of DEG and president of Warner Home Video.

DVD Sales

DEG says nearly five million DVD players were sold in the second quarter of '09. This brings the total amount of DVD players sold since the format's inception in 1997 to more than 260 million, according to DEG.

Spending for pre-recorded entertainment dropped 3.9 percent year-over-year to $9.73 billion in the first half of 2009, according to the Digital Entertainment Group (DEG). Pre-recorded entertainment covers DVD, Blu-ray and digital distribution. Digital distribution was up 21 percent to $968 million, while rental spending rose 8.3 percent.


Source: Digital Entertainment Group