Nielsen VideoScan High-Def market share for week ending June 29th, 2008
As expected, the Nielsen VideoScan charts are delayed this week because our friends over at Home Media Magazine were enjoying the holiday. Although we understand wanting to take it easy on the 4th of July, we do really wish HMM would've included the top twenty Blu-ray chart this week, as this makes two weeks in a row we've been without. The other chart that is missing again this week is the top twenty market share, so there's no way to know how well the number one and two DVDs did on Blu-ray. Although both DVD and Blu-ray experienced modest gains this week over last's, the share stayed pretty much the same (up 1%). Although this might not seem like much, it 's better than you think when you consider that three out of five of the top twenty DVDs weren't available on Blu-ray thanks to Universal and Fox. Universal will be on board soon enough, and we're not sure what the deal is with Fox, 'cause we don't know if the animated feature Futurama: The Beast with the a Billion Backs is even available in HD. Next week looks to be worst than this one though, as the releases aren't that exciting, but who knows we've been wrong before.
Filed under: Blu-ray
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Truth Teller @ Jul 7th 2008 5:02PM
Nothing much happening even a whole 5 months after HD DVD left the scene.
I'd love to see actual units sold, this $ data is fundamentally skewed in Blu-ray's favour to inflate the appearance of it's situation.
Nevertheless a paltry $8 million (in the USA only - the largest BD market, by far) give or take is what we were talking about weeks ago.
AlexHD @ Jul 7th 2008 11:02PM
Why are you still here?
Wesley Burchnall @ Jul 8th 2008 1:52AM
I've kind of got the feeling that 80% of these 5 million dollars in sales are brick and motor movie rental chains, online move-rental chains and only 20% actual consumers purchaisng dvds.
Of those 20%, I really do believe 30-50% of those purchases are the odd-fanatic movie collectors who have 100+ unique blu-rays cause they love movies, love high definition and have money to spare.
mntwister @ Jul 7th 2008 6:23PM
I don't expect much change to occur until the fall, when it gets colder outside and people are inside more and not spending most of their money traveling or outdoor parties or using alot more gas, when maybe some of our economic times may improve (we hope), when final profile players are on shelves, when at Christmas the prices of players and discs go on sale and the big blu-ray push that is coming from the studios and manufacturers starts (the promotions, according to Home Media Retailing, will rival the promotions of dvd in it's 3rd year).
I am very optomistic for blu-ray's future. It seems that many on here feel the same, and the others are exactly the opposite and have a sort of "death wish" for the format. That's too bad because it truly delivers the best quality picture and sound we have ever had on a video format and any person who is truly a movie fan at heart would be rooting for success. To hope that downloading will beat blu-ray is fine, to each their own, but as I said a true movie lover would want their 1080p picture that has been remastered for high definition disc over an upconverted 480 dvd (many of which never had good transfers to start with), and I believe true fans would also realize the importance of lossless soundtracks to obtain the same quality of sound as the studio master, another thing upconverted dvd's will never be able to offer and as for downloads, it will take many years to be able to download a film with a lossless soundtrack. And what about the extras? I havn't seen any on downloads. And again I ask, and none of the naysayers have ever responded to this...what happens when your hard drive of stored movies fails? It will eventually happen to every hard drive you know, while our blu-ray discs sit on the shelf ready for viewing? It's happened to me, 500gb of HD movies from DISH on a Seagate Freeagent Pro, one of the best drives made, failed after 1 year and not one movie could be recovered. That's not the "safety" net I feel safe with.
As I said to each their own, but I believe anyone who has a death wish for the format certainly either doesn't appreciate that we can now see and hear a film as it exists on the masters in both picture and sound, or they have such angry feelings aginst Sony for some reason or for beating Toshiba at the game, that this is the only way they can vent. There are several "posters" on here who, if you look at their previous posting history(just click on their screen name), make it a point to enter every single blu-ray discussion just for the sake of bad mouthing the format. One poster has hundreds of them and posts to no other threads. Sad, you would think these people would have something better to do with their time, lol.
CharlieX @ Jul 7th 2008 6:33PM
I was about to mention the same thing: If Truth and Nfinity spent half their daily energy on something else rather than trolling the Blu comments section, they'd probably solve global warming by tomorrow.
I have a suspicion that maybe they're PR hacks from Toshiba? Maybe it's their day job to chip away at the enemy.
Mr. E @ Jul 7th 2008 7:45PM
I'm with you mntwister. I'm absolutely loving home video in full 1080p high definition and lossless sound. I pinned down Truth Teller awhile back about why he was so hot for Blu-ray to fail, and his rationale was basically that he wanted something better. Well, that's all well and good, but if I were a studio executive, a hypothetical death of BOTH high definition formats wouldn't make me want to risk starting up another expensive format. It would more likely signal to me that consumers just don't care about high definition in home viewing. That is something that all high definition lovers should want to avoid.
I see no greed at work when I'm able to get 1080p with lossless sound for a $399 hardware investment and $17 to $27 per movie. Rather, I'm just so happy that I can live in a time when a movie can, for the first time, truly look and sound consistently better at home than in the theater.
DrXym @ Jul 8th 2008 3:55AM
The spikes can be predicted by looking at DVD player sales. The first half of the years is the doldrums, then it spikes in June for Fathers day, then it settles back a bit, then it spikes again in September and then really spikes in November / December. Sales of Blu Ray hardware and software will obviously follow a similar pattern. There is no great mystery to it, except to the usual HD DVD crybabies who, a full 6 months after their format died are still sore over it.
Dave C @ Jul 7th 2008 6:38PM
Actually the peak was $12.73M, only two weeks ago.
This week's was $8.88M
If it averages only $10M per week, it will be $520M for the year. Calling it paltry is perhaps a little cruel.
That said the studios obviously expect things to pick up Q3/Q4 since they are predicting a year close to $1B.
Jake @ Jul 7th 2008 7:09PM
Skewing the data by reporting sales in dollars?!? Skewing the data towards what, PROFITIBILITY? If 7% of the market will pay 30% to 50% more for a title than the rest of the market (DVD), why would a studio not capture that revenue stream. By intially pricing the title high, they capture the profit margin from consumers who are not particularly cost sensitive. At any time, the studio or the retailer can simply cut the retail price to increase volume. That's called a sale.
Why are unit sales so important, anyway? The Toyota Camry outsells the Porche 911 by multiple orders of magnitude. Does that make a Camry cooler/better than a 911? All that tells me is that Camry is cheaper to own and operate. Since Porche insists on not going out of business, apparently there is profit to be earned selling a small number of expensive things to people who can afford them.
DVD4ME @ Jul 7th 2008 8:09PM
Of course its skewing the data, otherwise it would be listed as numbers sold as EVERY OTHER product on the planet is. Name any other product that is listed by $ volume!
Your Camry/Porsche example is laughable, which is the biggest selling model by numbers??................forget $ volume, that means nothing, profit is what matters, and I bet the total profit for the vast Camry sales far out ways the niche Porsche market.............. and there in lies the problem with blu, it's a Camry that thinks it's a Porsche and charges prices accordingly, and in the process damning itself to remain a niche market product, and along the way it destroyed a quality product that had the potential to reach the mass market.
Even sony isn't convinced about br anymore.
http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/07/01/sony-s-blu-ray-will-keep-them-winning-new-format-war
Jake @ Jul 7th 2008 7:19PM
One more thing...HD movie fans rejoice that you have multiple formats from which to choose. Audiophiles are completely shanked in their pursuit of high-fidelity. No mainstream record company even cares about the rabid music fans who would like something higher-resolution than CD. In fact, there may come a time when a compressed download is the only option we have. CD may well prove the high water mark for audio fidelity, and there is nothing we can do about it as consumers.
Next time you are trying to decide whether to buy/rend the DVD, buy/rent the AppleTV HD download, do the HD cable pay--per-view or spring for the Blu-Ray, remember that had the cards fallen a little differently you'd be stuck with nothing at all.
BMZ @ Jul 8th 2008 2:26PM
What is so unfortunate is that if Toshiba had sued rather than given up; we would have truly had a successful HD successor to DVD that BR will never be.
jsn @ Jul 7th 2008 8:00PM
If only we had a disc based HD format with low cost, full featured players, low production costs and cheaper movie prices.....
Ben @ Jul 7th 2008 8:00PM
And no movies ;)
Will @ Jul 8th 2008 1:21AM
what reports would these be nfinity? because every sales chart for like 5 months was in favor of bluray, that's free market at its finest. the consumer bought the product they wanted and it won out, stop spewing out all these lies just because you dont like sony...and maybe you forgot about toshiba's own payoff to lock up studios. so it's ok when they do it, but not ok when sony does it? wow, your soo brilliant...maybe you should be the editor on here or something
Ben @ Jul 8th 2008 8:00AM
Nfinity,
You're living in the past, I'm talking about today. Today there are no movies for HD DVD.
Fred @ Jul 7th 2008 8:36PM
My worry is that Blu is too high priced that it would lead to failure. As an HD supporter, I was fine to moving to Blu, as long as movies are reasonably priced. I just watched a simple movie like the Usual Suspects on Blu and you can totally see the difference. But I am not going to buy that movie for 29.99, thats crazy.
The bigger problem is still looming in America. Gas, food and possibly taxes are going up in price and the consumer is making the same. Which means something will have to give, Blu could be that something. And with Sony announcing 3.3 billion loss for the PS3, and them losing a money everyday, they will drop prices for Blu-Ray players and their stubborness could be there downfall.
Mr. E @ Jul 8th 2008 10:53AM
The Usual Suspects Blu-ray is $18.95 today at Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/Usual-Suspects-Blu-ray-Stephen-Baldwin/dp/B00000F214/
Is $18.95 too much to pay for a movie? Only the consumer can answer that. I personally think that any movie I like is worth up to $20, no question. A movie I love might be worth more, depending on what I'm getting for the money. Player and movie prices have been continuously dropping. Obviously not as fast as many would like, but it's happening.
Fred @ Jul 7th 2008 8:43PM
I just noticed the major typo, they will not drop prices for Blu-Ray players to try to re-coup their losses.
I predict Blu sales to be much higher next week with Batman Begins out their this week. That is one movie I will buy at the outragous price (collectors set I pre-ordered) with the animated movies because I love Batman. If they added the whole collection I would of bought those to, and I know their are a lot of people like me out their.
Dark Knight will be awesome in IMAX, can't wait to see it.
Mr_Fizzlepop @ Jul 8th 2008 3:12AM
I bought Batman begins Blu-ray for 17.95 on Amazon.
Amazon has the special Edition DVD which has less special features than the Blu-ray for 14.99
4 bucks more for the HD version isn't much of a mark-up in my book.
Mr_Fizzlepop @ Jul 8th 2008 3:21AM
Oh, and the special Edition Blu-ray isn't much about more movie features, it's about postcards, a comicbook, a Dark knight sneak-peak and a Batman Begins lenticular.
It also has 7.50 towards a Dark knight ticket good till mid August?
So if you use it to see Dark knight and you were going to see Dark knight anyways, it's only like 13 bucks more, but again, that's not for movie or special features content.
For the Movie and all the special feature content(and added content) you can just get the regular Blu-ray version, on a single Blu-ray instead of 2 DVDs.
THizzle7XU @ Jul 7th 2008 11:19PM
I don't care who you are: selling $8.8 million worth of product in one week (and a so-so one at that) means it's not going away anytime soon. Given that Blu-ray is only two years old and the tech will just be maturing by the end of the year, it's going to be around awhile. Sorry message board sensationalists; I know you love to reach the most extreme conclusions of minor things, but Blu-ray (and the PS3 for that matter) is not dying. Hell, I didn't even have a DVD player until the tech was 4 years old, and it took less than two to get a Blu-ray player (same story for many of my friends too). Also, I've been getting most of my Blu-ray collection brand new and cheaper than DVD's on Amazon and Ebay, so the $20-$40 argument is a poor one at best.
Mr. E @ Jul 8th 2008 11:04AM
You're right, THizzle. All formats have to start somewhere. Evidence is rampant that Blu-ray is growing nicely, so I have no worries.
XDragon @ Jul 8th 2008 9:11AM
I think you people that are expecting big number from Blu-Ray just don't get it. New releases do well and back catalog releases of BIG movies do well. That's all any new format can expect to do vs DVD. I personally won't buy all discs going forward as Blu-Ray, just big movies like The Dark Knight, The Harry Potters and Indiana Jones. I will replace Lord Of The Rings, Gladiator, Armageddon and The Devil's Advocate, but when you add all tha up, its fails to compare to DVD. That doesn't mean Blu-Ray is doing bad, it is doing what should be expcected and I'd guess more people who still rent from Blockbuster, ect. wil rent the Blu-Ray version over the DVD if they can Blu-Ray players.
Mr. E @ Jul 8th 2008 11:03AM
Nobody's expecting big numbers from Blu-ray at this early point. The only ones who obsess over these figures are those who like to point to weekly statistics as though it's evidence of some kind of failure. We all know who they are, and that they will be shown to be wrong again, and again, and again.
I've personally decided to stop responding to them any more. It's just not worth the effort. I'll just vote them down when they're lying or wrong, and post something relevant to the original post, if I feel I can contribute. I encourage everyone else to do the same.
Blake @ Jul 9th 2008 9:53AM
LMAO
The anti-blu power trio of Truth Teller, Nfinity, and HD4ME with their tediously routine doom and gloom posts! Always something for you to moan about eh? Little sponges of any and all anti-Blu rumours! Hell, Nfinity is even bringing up the old 1 billion pay-off bollox which never happened! lol
Go right ahead and enjoy your chosen alternate format! Be it SUC, the HD-DVD bargain bin, downloads, piracy, rentals, DVD upscaling! You've been trolling about them all!
You three lost the plot in January and have been mourning the dead ever since! Judging by your frequent predictions of the past (with unnerving accuracy I might add! lol), Blu-ray was to be imminently crushed by HD-DVD! but when that didn't happen, your little maniacal ego's couldn't handle it! Now you carry the torch for which is also conveniently going to imminently crush Blu-ray!
Blu-ray isn't going anywhere, prices are coming down, titles are being churned out, and each a slap round your chops!
Lol I laugh when l think back to Truth Teller and his Tsunami warnings of Blu destruction!
Truth Teller @ Jul 9th 2008 10:15AM
I laugh even harder as I watch Blu-ray, having won the small squabble with HD DVD, failing completely to get established as 'the next DVD' and you guys doing everything you can to ignore this point.
I'm enjoying my 100+ HD DVD movies (which cost me peanuts) and my quality HD DVD player which also happens to be an excellent DVD upscaler.
You guys paid - and continue to pay - through the nose for yours.
It's damned funny to me the way you lot skim over those facts as you demand we all think like you.
Sorry.
No.
Fail.
Even more amusing is that Sony themselvews have now shifted position and are now offering downloading services themselves.
One for the PS3 (which alone is as big a threat to Blu-ray as anything) and one with their Bravia TVs.
But you rock on, as the facts get too difficult to cope with you carry on & make your weak idiotic personal digs
(which if you were able to be honest revolve entirely around CES 2008 & the Warner last-minute shift).
I'm sure your Blu-ray.com pals will continue to keep the blinkers on & lap it all up.
I'm having fun watching the PS3/Blu-ray fanboy excuses as it all goes t!ts up.
Blake @ Jul 10th 2008 5:20AM
Yup, you keep your head in the sand Truth Teller, like you've always done! Always muttering about about bluray.com or PS3 kiddies? Weak mind? Come up with something new.
So you paid peanuts for your HD-DVD collection? Hardly! Their price only plummeted when Toshiba threw in the towel. That must give you a warm fuzzy feeling all over knowing your extensive collection of HD-DVD can now be bought for less than peanuts in every bargain bin.
I, like many others, don't pay through the nose for Bluray media. You can get them cheap online (as we've always done) and there are always offers to be had, not like you'd know considering the amount of piracy you admit to.
Oops! Does that blow up your anti-blu agenda?
You fail...and fail...and fail again!
Truth Teller @ Jul 10th 2008 8:50AM
* quote
Blake
So you paid peanuts for your HD-DVD collection? Hardly! Their price only plummeted when Toshiba threw in the towel.
=====================================================
Er, I've been buying HD DVDs since Dec last year (and got 7 free with my player).
Sorry to disappoint but I've been extremely selective
(buying internationally since the start - the weak $ US verses UK £ was a major boost)
paying very little for my HD DVD movies and enjoying that enormously.
You're wrong.
************************************************************************************
* quote
Blake
That must give you a warm fuzzy feeling all over knowing your extensive collection of HD-DVD can now be bought for less than peanuts in every bargain bin.
=====================================================
I'm laughing all the way to the bank and have been since this started.
************************************************************************************
* quote
BlakeI, like many others, don't pay through the nose for Bluray media. You can get them cheap online (as we've always done)
=====================================================
.....and you're still nowhere near a whole 100+ movie collection (including several boxsets and multi-disc releases) which averages out @ approx £10/$20 each.
I couldn't even buy them all in SD DVD for that.
************************************************************************************
* quote
Blake
and there are always offers to be had, not like you'd know considering the amount of piracy you admit to.
=====================================================
I'm all for sharing and I make no secret of it.
You corporate b!tches can keep on pretending it's "piracy" if you like.
But yes, nice of you to raise & point out that every single Blu-ray release (along with every single HD DVD release) is available right now as either a straight rip or a nice encode
(many at handy DVD5 or DVD9 sizes and extremely well done given the size limitations).
Thanks for that.
Besides it's a really dumb point (as is most of that corporate taught anti-sharing 'theocracy').
I actually have bought a very large number of my movies (both SD & HD), as well as my CDs, because I wanted them 'in full' after seeing/hearing a downloaded version.
I've even bought the defunct SACD & DVD-Audio discs because of this reason.
I have no interest in the viability of the formats, if I like it & it's good quality I'll be interested.
But I won't buy Blu-ray
(until they either drop the DRM BS or it dies and I can buy sh!tloads of movies again for next to nothing).
If only the corporate fools (& their idiot shills) could understand this, sharing generates sales where there would otherwise never have been a sale.
The alternative is not that 'we' would have bought the movie (or CD for that matter) anyways, it is that 'we' would not have bothered at all.
No sales have been lost.
The big deal with retailed discs is that you get all the 'added value' stuff a download cannot offer......that's where the industry ought to be concentrating, the current idiocy for persecuting sharers does nothing to stop the genuine 'pirates'
(who copy & sell on a vast scale regardless of any of that ridiculous DRM BS they include - at our ultimate expense).
But of course that would mean that 'the industry' would have to actually routinely use some imagination and bother about releasing a high quality product, which would cost a few pennies more, something they, largely, abhor.
Wake up.
************************************************************************************
* quote
Blake
Oops! Does that blow up your anti-blu agenda?
=====================================================
I'm anti-Blu-ray because it is specifically designed to rob consumers of even more control over what they supposedly own.
You can go along with that if you like; luckily they have priced it at such a level that, practically speaking, it's only really the PS3 idiot fanboy element (and a relative handful of a/v enthusiast) that are bothering with it.
.....and not even benefiting from the tiny prices HD DVD owners have (and still are) paying.
************************************************************************************
* quote
Blake
You fail...and fail...and fail again!
=====================================================
I laughed so hard at you then that a little bit of wee-wee came out.
"Weak mind? Come up with something new". "Fail etc etc"
Not much of a one for irony are you?
Are you American?
Blake @ Jul 10th 2008 9:58PM
"Sorry to disappoint but I've been extremely selective
(buying internationally since the start - the weak $ US verses UK £ was a major boost)
paying very little for my HD DVD movies and enjoying that enormously.
You're wrong."
No, you're wrong! Buying 100+ titles is NOT being extremely selective! Laughing all the way to the bank after spending a minimum of over £500-£1000+ ?!? Hardly!
"I'm laughing all the way to the bank and have been since this started."
I've been laughing at every retarded post you've made since the middle of last year with your stupid predictions which have all surprisingly...failed!
"I couldn't even buy them all in SD DVD for that."
That's because it's an obsolete format which won't be replaced! Go figure!
"all for sharing and I make no secret of it. You corporate b!tches can keep on pretending it's "piracy" if you like."
Of course it's piracy you moron! Are you incapable of reading the disclaimer on every piece of media you buy which states you cannot reproduce said media?!? Too much for you to comprehend?
"But yes, nice of you to raise & point out that every single Blu-ray release (along with every single HD DVD release) is available right now as either a straight rip or a nice encode
(many at handy DVD5 or DVD9 sizes and extremely well done given the size limitations).
Thanks for that."
No, Thank you for clarifying you're a pirate!
"I've even bought the defunct SACD & DVD-Audio discs because of this reason."
And now you have HD-DVD to bolster your defunct collection! Hoorah!
"I have no interest in the viability of the formats, if I like it & it's good quality I'll be interested. But I won't buy Blu-ray (until they either drop the DRM BS or it dies and I can buy sh!tloads of movies again for next to nothing)."
So you're either a cheap ass pirate or have a fetish for techno-necrophilia!
"If only the corporate fools (& their idiot shills) could understand this, sharing generates sales where there would otherwise never have been a sale."
What you don't grasp is, removing DRM will only open the door for the profiteers to sell the media with no hinderance whatsoever. That is why China was flooded with pirated HD-DVD material way before it was due to be launched there (and prematurely binned!). Removing DRM would NOT magically turn people honest!
"No sales have been lost."
Are you that nieve? deluded? or just plain stupid? Go and do some research on how much revenue is lost to piracy!
"The big deal with retailed discs is that you get all the 'added value' stuff a download cannot offer......that's where the industry ought to be concentrating, the current idiocy for persecuting sharers does nothing to stop the genuine 'pirates'
(who copy & sell on a vast scale regardless of any of that ridiculous DRM BS they include - at our ultimate expense)."
So where have you seen pirated Blu-ray discs for sale on the high street? Nobody gives a toss about DRM except pirates.....like you!
"But of course that would mean that 'the industry' would have to actually routinely use some imagination and bother about releasing a high quality product, which would cost a few pennies more, something they, largely, abhor. Wake up."
You don't work in the industry so you evidently know f&$k all about the economics of the situation. You just stroll by in your own selfish little deluded world which borders on maniacal.
"I'm anti-Blu-ray because it is specifically designed to rob consumers of even more control over what they supposedly own."
Consumers don't own the movie!!! They own the right to WATCH the movie. They don't the right to COPY the movie. They don't own the right to DISTRIBUTE the movie! Are you even capable of reading the terms and conditions?!?!?
"I laughed so hard at you then that a little bit of wee-wee came out."
Yeah, old age incontinence does that!
"Not much of a one for irony are you? Are you American?"
Fail again! No I'm not! Are you Scouse?