Blu-ray Disc Share Shrinks to 12 Percent


Blu-ray Disc's share of the video-disc market shrunk slightly to 12 percent in the most recent week of sales data in mid-January, as standard-def DVD titles continue to heavily dominate movie and television packaged entertainment. Also, DVD sales actually grew over a year ago, which has not been typical in the past several months of weekly tallies.

For the week ending Jan. 17, Blu-ray (1080p) titles' revenue failed to reach the $19 million level, although Blu-ray disc sales were up nearly 80 percent over the same week a year ago. Standard DVD sales for the same period amassed more than $140 million in sales (88 percent of the video-disc revenue pie), resulting in a jump of more than 6 percent over the same week in January 2009, according to Home Media Research.

Overall video-disc sales (Blu-ray and DVD combined), for the week of Jan. 11-17 reached just under $160 million, which was up more than 11.5 percent over last year.

Because Blu-ray title sales are still relatively small, the success or failure of only one or two titles in any given week can directly affect Blu-ray's fluctuating revenue share in overall video-disc sales.