Cheap Blu-ray players a rare commodity in Europe

by Darren Murph posted Nov 26th 2008 at 9:14AM

Blu-ray Disc sales may be up a staggering 396% in the UK, and the BDA may be bullish about BD's success in Europe as a whole, but Europeans looking to buy in cheap as we Americans have recently been able to do may be out of luck (for now, at least). According to a new report from Reuters, "a scarcity of cheap Blu-ray players combined with the effects of a recession are expected to delay take-up of the Blu-ray format in Europe." It's suggested that supply issues earlier in the year could mean that those relatively cheap BD decks in the US may not make their way to Europe before the big holiday shopping season. Screen Digest analyst Richard Cooper even went so far as to say that these factors "[could mean that] the format is unlikely to move much beyond the early adopter market this year." Granted, no one really anticipated BD going from niche to mainstream by the time CES 2009 got going, but a scarcity of affordable players sure won't help matters.

Filed under: Industry, Blu-ray

Tags: bd, blu-ray, blu-ray adoption, Blu-rayAdoption, deal, deals, economy, europe, global, LONDON, sales, shortage, supply, uk

Subscribe to these comments

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Highly Ranked

Mark @ Nov 26th 2008 10:34AM

BD players currently sell from £150 / €210 up but there is a lot of inconsistency from one store to the next. Some stores are still trying to sell gen 1 players for full price while others are selling very affordable current gen players. Topachat (in France) is selling the Sony S350 for €239, Saturn (Germany) has the Samsung BDP1500 for €229. Richer Sounds (UK) sells the S350 for £170. Keep in mind that European prices include tax so its not far removed from its US price. The market isn't as advanced yet as the US. DVD lagged about 12 months behind in the early days too.

Neutral

techie @ Nov 27th 2008 2:12PM

Here in Denmark in the DVD days the market began to take off when players hit around 100£/200$ and everybody got DVD when the chinese players hit 50£/100$.

Currently the cheapest BD player is around 175£/350$, but good BDLive player are far more expensive. Eg. a Panasonic BD-55 is around 3 times that price.

But as Mark says.. Europe is behind and Blu-ray havent really been advertised yet. It is slowly beginning here, but it will take a little time - especially since the advertisement doesnt really mention the benefits, but only mention it is available along as the ordinary DVD. Many can't explain what HD is yet.

British MP Watson leading charge against Modern Warfare 2 media controversy Rumor: Japanese Final Fantasy XIII to include Final Fantasy XIV content Activision establishing 'Call of Duty Endowment,' donating $1 million to war veteran aid	Five essential addons for new Firefox users (Happy fifth birthday, Firefox!) Google to unveil a Wave-inspired, unified interface across its web apps Max out your World of Warcraft character with a free, open-source application called Rawr
Get a Quirky Beamer for your iPhone (hint: it's not a car) Steve Jobs, the moral high ground, and the return to Apple TUAW Review and giveaway: Blur Tripod and app for iPhone	Fuqi drops on weak Q3 revenue, in-line Q4 forecast And the hottest toy for the holiday season is ... Bank of America's board of directors fights over Lewis' successor
Crackdown HDD installation now available Reminder: Watch the first episode of Halo Legends today [update: It's gone] Homemade Fallout 3 Shishkebab, make 'em now before the apocalypse	BREAKING: Detroit News says GM will build Cadillac Converj VIDEO: Bacardi, Maserati, and Michael Schumacher get shaken, not stirred First Drive: 2011 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG straightens up and flies right
StarCraft novel release delayed; is it a clue to StarCraft II's release date? EA acquires social game publisher Playfish for $300 million Mac Monday: Spooky Runes/Boonka	Larry Johnson Cut by Kansas City Bengals a Win Away From Controlling AFC North Four 'Contenders' in Serious Trouble