Nielsen VideoScan High-Def market share for week ending March 23rd, 2008
Many of you asked for it, and this week you got it, thanks to Home Media Magazine's Nielsen VideoScan numbers, we now know how the favorite HD home movie format compares to the reigning home media champion. Sure, 6 percent isn't that much, but it's more than most people thought it was, but to be fair it is only taking into account the top 20 BDs vs the top 20 DVDs. This is an interesting way to compare the two formats as seven out of the top 20 -- three in the top 10 -- DVDs aren't available on Blu-ray, but DVD has many more releases than Blu-ray, so while the angle is obviously in Blu-ray's favor, it'll become even more true, as more Blu-ray titles are released day-and-date with DVDs. Looking back at our old fight, HD DVD's last exclusive is now done and gone and as expected, HD DVD has its worst week ever, but with the recent events we only expect this to get worse, and wonder how long HMM will continue to compile results. The other indicator that it's officially over -- as if we needed another -- is the lack of a single HD DVD on the HDM top ten chart. Not even HD DVD's last exclusive could make the list, but Blu-ray's latest didn't have any problem killin' the competition as I Am Legend destroyed Disney's Enchanted by almost four to one. The other interesting thing about this week's chart is that most of the rest of the 10 ten is made up of oldies, which makes us want to know; where are all the sales?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Mr. E @ Mar 28th 2008 8:29PM
Ben, THANK YOU for the BD versus DVD chart. I am surprised at the 6%, but not nearly as surprised as the "BD is DOA" crowd will be, I'm sure. It makes sense to me to compare the top sellers in both formats, since it's been established that the vast majority of sales come in the first weeks a title is available, and DVD's back catalog completely dwarfs BD at this time, so overall disc sales comparisons wouldn't make a lot of sense right now.
Ben, also have you seen the reports around the web (saw it at high-def digest) that Blu-ray racked up 3 million disc sales in the last eleven weeks, versus 6 million sold since inception (part of 2006 and all of 2007). That kind of acceleration tells me there was a lot of pent-up demand and that with the format war firmly behind us people are ready to get their HD on. Awesome news all-in-all for HD on disc.
Mr. E @ Mar 28th 2008 8:33PM
Oh, I meant to add too that I expect the back catalog titles in the top ten are because more and more people are buying Blu-ray players now. It stands to reason that they'd want to stock up on available titles. Unless you meant "where are all the sales" in the sense of "sale prices", in which case I don't have an answer, except to say that Amazon is not bad with 30% off across the board. Definitely beats most all B&Ms.
JDS @ Mar 28th 2008 8:32PM
Yo Infinitard [nfinity]
I thought you said the dead format was in the number 1 spot?
That must have been on some other chart?
To me it looks like the dead format is ABSENT from the charts completely....
You & Truth Teller should get used to NOT seeing it listed in the weekly sales charts anymore.....since there won't be any new releases other than the last few Warner Bros...and once they're out it is TRULY OVER.
Enjoy being on the outside looking in you tool.
JDS @ Mar 28th 2008 8:37PM
Low RankedJDS
@ Mar 26th 2008 11:04PM
Truth Teller
In 2006 - 2007 Blu-Ray moved just over 6 million units [movies].
In the first 11 weeks of 2008 Blu-Ray has moved over 3 million units [movies].
Blu-Ray is on track to move 15 million+ units [movies] in 2008.
Reply
NeutralNfinity
@ Mar 26th 2008 11:19PM
What the hell are you talking about.. Sales have NEVER been more miserable for Blu-Ray. Go look at the latest numbers. I don't even know where you are getting those ridiculous estimates.
THE DEAD HD DVD had Number 1 title in the top 10 HD movies. Are you dumb? People are slowing down purchases. Movies are simply TOO EXPENSIVE.
And to grow, again, something you simply seem to lack capacity to comprehend is for a standard to grow you need to sell HARDWARE not movies.
NeutralJDS
@ Mar 26th 2008 11:34PM
@ nfinity
Blu-ray Disc sales continue to pick up steam, with total U.S. sales since inception (about a year-and-a-half-ago) hitting 9 million units through March 16, according to HMR research.
In just 11 weeks this year, BD unit sales have hit 3 million units, seemingly putting the format on pace to easily hit at least 15 million units for 2008.
After averaging weekly sales ranging from 200,000 - 300,000 the past two months or so, sales spiked up to 319,000 units, driven by Miramax's release of "No Country For Old Men."
The Oscar-winner, despite having few special features of any kind, sold a whopping 68,000 units the week ending March 16.
Mr. E @ Mar 28th 2008 8:44PM
JDS, why keep baiting and bashing like this? Just sit back and enjoy the now undeniable fact that Blu-ray is in no way going to die out soon as the naysayers kept predicting. We're going to be able to buy glorious 1080p releases on Blu-ray for many, many years to come.
My wallet will hate it, but my eyes and ears are going to love all the BDs I'll be buying over the next decade or so!
Mr. E @ Mar 28th 2008 8:40PM
Wow, there is another story just posted at High-Def Digest, saying that Nielsen Videoscan is showing that in the first five days of release, Blu-ray accounted for a full 10% of sales of No Country for Old Men, and 12.6 percent of total sales of Hitman!
Sweet!
Larry @ Mar 28th 2008 8:43PM
No offense Ben but this chart is kind of useless if it only compares the top 20 vs top 20. We all know long tail for DVD goes way beyond the top 20. It will only serve to over inflate the success of Blu-Ray.
Mr. E @ Mar 28th 2008 8:49PM
Why is it "overinflating" the success of Blu-ray to directly compare sales of both formats on new release titles? To me it would make a lot less sense to compare the overall sales of DVD with more than 90,000 titles available to Blu-ray with only 500 titles available.
Shoot, you have to admit that if 12.6 percent of buyers of a new release like Hitman are opting for the BD during the first five days, that's a very fair comparison.
BrokenFERN @ Mar 28th 2008 8:43PM
Where are the sales?... Target had a BOGO last week and it included Pirates, Ratatouille, 300, Casino, and 3:10
DEEZNUTZ @ Mar 28th 2008 8:53PM
Thanks for the BD vs DVD comparison. Although it's only top 20, still an impressive showing for BD. If this becomes the weekly norm, should be a fun chart to watch and flame each other with.
Truth Teller @ Mar 28th 2008 9:48PM
....and still the 'dead' format takes a significant chunk of the sales this week.
Had to laugh at the laughably rigged DVD v Blu-ray comparison.
"to be fair it is only taking into account the top 20 BDs vs the top 20 DVDs"
Show us the numbers not the cherry-picked percentages.
The SD DVD market sells in excess of 750 million a year.
Excuse me if I don't find Blu-ray's speculations of 15 million units/whatever the BDA pull out of the a$$ too impressive.
Blu-ray will stick a round a while (the PS3 guarantees that) but that is nothing like the same as saying it will ever take the place of SD DVD.
Wake up, that's not going to happen.
SimbaDogg @ Mar 28th 2008 10:50PM
you are a clown
Jove @ Mar 28th 2008 11:11PM
there is nothing here about hd dvd at all so go do something else with your life
Sam Winter @ Mar 29th 2008 3:25AM
Significant chunk? hahah. 12% is pretty shitty when you take in account that every HD-DVD disc that has been pressed is practically being given away on fire sale.
Also, the Blu-ray vs DVD "Top 20" graph is completely relevant, and the only proper way to look at the market at such an early time. DVD has a back catalog of 10,000s of disc, and Blu-ray has a couple hundred, therefore, a total unit sales comparison would be useless.
Oh, and btw, have a good time with DVD! I hope you continue to enjoy stretched SD for years to come! Maybe you can even re-buy an old CRT rear projection screen to go along with it!
Truth Teller @ Mar 29th 2008 2:41PM
Actually Sam SD DVD has a catalogue of 90,000+.
The only numbers that count are the total disc sales numbers.
SD DVD sell over 750 million movies a year.
Blu-ray will (at best) reach 2% of that this year (and almost all on the back of the PS3).
It's all far too little far too late.
(and quit trying to hide behind HD DVD)
Sam Winter @ Mar 29th 2008 7:00PM
@Truth Teller
I wasn't sure about the exact size -- the reason why there is an "s" after 10,000 aka "tens of thousands".
I don't agree that total unit sales is a fair comparison, and I don't understand why "on the back of PS3" is a bad thing? It is by far the best value --- Profile 2.0 Blu-ray player, networked media extender, next-gen console, etc.
Also, I acknowledge that DVD will sell hundreds of millions more units than Blu-ray will this year, however, that is not important. The GROWTH curve of Blu-ray units sales is the only thing that really matters.
Truth Teller @ Mar 29th 2008 7:26PM
@ Sam the point about the PS3 is that it's a niche in itself and nothing to do with the a/v mass-market.
To survive Blu-ray has to penetrate the mass-market, something it is singularly failing to do
(they don't even have a proper range of supposedly final spec players at mass-market-friendly prices and won't for at least another year and counting = which means 3yrs+ and counting in it's 'life-span').
You'll also find that despite being bundled from the start in a game console that was always bound to sell in the multi-millions that "growth curve" is spectacularly unimpressive -
http://www.mp3newswire.net/stories/8002/hd-DVD_outsells_blu-ray.html
(and for the ignorants out there PS2 came along over 3 years into DVD's 'life-span', SD DVD did not launch with the PS2).
HD4ME @ Apr 1st 2008 4:28AM
Hey Truth, have a read of this, HD DVD+, a great read! :)
http://www.dvdcritiques.com/news/news_visu.aspx?dvd=1877
Truth Teller @ Apr 1st 2008 11:16AM
@ HD4ME
LOL
Not bad for an april 1st one, if only!
Happy_man @ Mar 28th 2008 10:27PM
So no one can stomp the VHS is what your saying right???
shakes2 @ Mar 28th 2008 11:10PM
It's all about television man. I am not even joking! I have an HD DVD player and i can still guarantee that more people will watch American Idol in one night than there will be BluRay discs sold in a month. Wake up and smell the coffee, media is dead. Live television (pre recorded) is in! man, Live is SOOOO much better than HD, because it is ... like... real! :-) I dare someone else to adopt this philosophy and fan boy it to hell (all pluses on your comments from me if you do, i swear!)
Jove @ Mar 29th 2008 3:00AM
yeah, all these fools who invested their money on dvd are just crazy, not to think of blu ray. i mean vhs has an installed base of millions and it has been the prefered format of choice for 30 years!
Jove @ Mar 28th 2008 11:14PM
about i am legend... the acting was questionable at best, the writting, the editing and the principal photography too, but i was surprised this movie wasnt at least nominated for vest visual efects. sure i know about the cgi creatures and the critisism but wow seeing new york city empty isnt something you would see every day... altough i had issues about seeing grass coming out of 5th avenue considering it was only 3 years since the virus outbreak so i dont know if thats long enough for it to happen but oh well...
mntwister @ Mar 29th 2008 12:00AM
Actually I was very surprised about the 23.75 sales point for Enchanted. Man, that is one great blu-ray disc. I think with these releases it comes down to the fact that not everyone has enough money for 2 new releases on BD which can be over 50.00 if you buy both. I expect Enchanted will stay on the charts for some time, I Am Legend (another fantastic blu-ray release) has much more appeal to the PS3 demographic.
HD4ME @ Mar 29th 2008 9:10AM
Gee, let's slant this article in BR's favor, how unusual!!
Anthony Pivac @ Mar 29th 2008 10:53AM
The studios should just start phasing out SD DVD, as they did with VHS & Laserdisc. Or SD DVD with movie only. with extras on Blu-ray releases to help push the format.
Truth Teller @ Mar 29th 2008 2:34PM
Yeah cos if all else fails just try & cheat eh?
A pig-headed sabotaging of their prime cash-cow just so the Blu-ray/PS3 gang can feel happy about not also selecting a dead format is not going to happen.
The studios might well be pi$$ed off that DVD no longer generates the margins it once did but that is nothing like the same as saying DVD is not enormously profitable for them (which it is).
Don't be silly.
Blu-ray (despite this rigged & highly selective BS) is a mere pi$$ in the ocean compared to DVD.
DVD sells over 750 million movies a year.
Blu-ray (despite the boost PS3 gives it) will be lucky to scrape together sales of even 2% of that total this year
(and we've still yet to have an interesting little expos on how movie sales numbers are being artificially skewed by BDA members doing a little underhand corporate buying).
HDpurist @ Mar 29th 2008 4:55PM
Very impressive stats for Blu-ray. Once the majority of AAA titles are released on BD and prices are lowered at least by $5-10 with BD players going under $250, the days of DVD will be over. The future of BD is extremely exciting!
JDS @ Mar 29th 2008 5:46PM
Q3 2008 there are 2 profile 2.0 Blu-Ray players scheduled to be released.
The Funai / Sylvania & the Daewoo which are supposed to be priced around $199.
Hopefully the OPPO Blu-Ray player will not be far behind.
Truth Teller @ Mar 29th 2008 7:28PM
Daewoo
LMAO
Total POS. Good luck with that one!
JDS @ Mar 29th 2008 10:44PM
@ Truth Teller
I didn't endorse it [Daewoo] I simply supplied the info to someone interested in a Blu-Ray player below $250...but coming from someone who was talking about cheap
CH-DVD players being the next big thing not so long ago G.F.Y. and do your lover infinitard [nfinity] while you are at it....
cheers mate
Truth Teller @ Mar 30th 2008 9:23AM
@ JDS
I'd wait until you see it before making claims about it.
HD DVD China at least has the benefit of using hardware that is simply a rebadged Toshiba HD A3 gen 3 design (in fact the Toshiba was, towards the end, made in the same factories and not by Toshiba themselves).
Daewoo on the otherhand is well known for producing the cheapest low quality cr@p going
(they have a plant near me and I knew one of their mid-management guys at it, he wouldn't touch their stuff with a bargepole).
JDS @ Mar 30th 2008 9:41AM
@ Truth Teller
The only CLAIM I made was that Daewoo is releasing a profile 2.0 player.
So is Funai but with a Sylvania label here in the U.S..
OPPO is supposed to be right behind them.
All 3 are supposed to be priced around $199 and scheduled to be released Q3 2008.
Truth Teller @ Mar 30th 2008 4:39PM
We'll see.
I suspect it will fall in line with the profile 1.1 timing and be much delayed.
If people like Denon are having major problems
(using the very best and most expensive of components, and they are, their profile 2.0 player is much delayed too)
then I would not be holding my breath for the bottom-feeders to be getting on too well with it.
JDS @ Mar 30th 2008 9:43AM
@ Truth Teller
WTF is a bargepole????
Truth Teller @ Mar 30th 2008 4:41PM
A bargepole is a very long sturdy pole used in canal transport to push slow-moving barges about.