The British Video Association is back with some more happy stats on how well Blu-ray is doing, claiming 3.1 million discs sold since the start of 2009. Still, even with a claimed 231% jump over last year's YTD figures, that hasn't offset a 9.5% drop in sales of DVDs. that should move the needle well past last year's figures, where only 1.5 million were reportedly moved by October, but we doubt that's much comfort to employees of the nearly 900 retailers that have closed this year. Even with consumers "continuing to spend money on the product" once they've experienced it, according to BVA director general Lavinia Carey, expect a greater focus on downloads to offer an alternative to piracy, though no word on when that can be expected.

Same old same old, despite the screams of plasma fans, LCD sales are expected to reach higher than ever this year, as DisplaySearch has raised its estimate to 127 million units worldwide in 2009. Total TV sales are expected to drop, as well as those of plasmas, but even in the liquid crystal world all isn't pretty. As a result of the ongoing price war, even with higher sales manufacturers are raking in less cash, with revenue projected to be down as much as 6 percent. We doubt that will result in the long predicted LCD price spike, but we do have to wonder how much lower we'llssee sales go later this year around usual bargain hunting times like Black Friday, there may not be much room left.

As frequently predicted, Blu-ray hasn't been enough to make up for sagging DVD sales, as a new Screen Digest report indicates a 4.8 percent slide worldwide last year, falling more than $2.6 billion. After plateauing approaching 2007, disc sales have been falling ever since and even Blu-ray's $482 million contribution can't hold up the slack. Still, it's looking at online rentals like Lovefilm and Quickflix to make up for some of the rental losses internationally, but don't expect Blu-ray to help grow the market at all until at least 2010. Of course, the company did also predict the format war would remain stalemated just weeks before Warner ended the whole thing, so we'd keep a grain of salt handy while reading.

[Via Financial Times]

Even the economy can't keep HDTV sales down, according to iSuppli's research. In lieu of travel and going out, we're buying bigger TVs to stay home and watch, with sales of flat panel displays in the $600 - $999 range rising the fastest, while Wal-mart is very close to catching Best Buy in marketshare. Samsung's plasma sales kept it narrowly in the overall lead over upstart (and new LCD champ) Vizio, but we'll have to wait and see how long that lasts.

[Via Yahoo Tech]

In these difficult times people are looking to buy what's cheap, a state of mind that Vizio's iSuppli's latest press release isn't ashamed to apply, lauding the company's status as the current most popular brand of LCD television in these United States. It owned a 21.6 percent chunk of the US LCD TV market in the first quarter, up from 13.8 in the quarter before and beat out Samsung to be king of the liquid crystal hill -- largely thanks to prices that were, on average, between $150 and $400 lower than the competition. Kudos to the brand and we hope that it enjoys this moment, because with imports of new sets banned out on bond it must be tough paying an extra $2.50 on each one coming through Customs. Full press release after the break.

Update: To be clear: this is actually a press release issued by iSupply talking about Vizio, not by Vizio.

Congratulations Blu-ray, you might be ready to step into the zone of mass market acceptance, as NPD's retail tracking service found Q1 sales of standalone players up 72 percent over last year, moving over 400,000 units with a 14% increase in dollar sales. Last year sure the format survived mad fights but high prices were a setback; fast forward to March when an online survey of 6,994 people found awareness has reached 90 percent in the last six months, with customers fascinated by its updates. Although BD-Live is looking more and more like an unneeded gimmick, the real facts are people care about cost and average player prices dropped from $393 last year to $261 in 2009. The "Blu-ray report" suggests the magic number is $214 for folks like Shawn Marion, so more room might be needed to breeze, and could come as soon as this fall around the time Vizio's player finally appears. It might be tragic for Vudu, CBHD and others trying to get a foothold, but Blu-ray's magic wand is word of mouth - so while much talked about, but much lower selling tech like Kindle is happy as hell to get a record deal, right now Blu-ray's unique skills can't be compared.

With companies heading for the exits at chez plasma, smaller vendors -- most of whom do not have in-house plasma manufacturing -- are left in a precarious position. In what may well be the waning hours for plasma TVs, high-end brand Runco is staying in the game for one last (high margin, we imagine) round. LCDs are catching up to the image quality of even top-tier plasmas, but there's still a performance gap in areas that some consumers value. Somehow we didn't envision Runco outlasting Pioneer in the plasma game, but it's "business as usual" for Runco plasma TVs spanning the 50-inch to 103-inch range; perfect for that "secondary" TV for guests who don't want to watch what's on your $40,000 Runco VideoWall, don't you think?

Adams Media Research hasn't always had the most positive outlook on Blu-ray numbers, but its latest report indicates that despite the current state of the economy and the still-high price of Blu-ray discs the format is continuing to grow, with year to date numbers that nearly double those from last year at around 9 million compared to 4.8 million at this point in 2008. As usual, Andy Parsons of the BDA had a positive quote to give Video Business, since he was "delighted" by the figures, which also included an estimated total of 10.5 million Blu-ray households (including dedicated players and PS3s, no word if laptops played into that figure.) It's another year later, and there've been many more Blu-ray players sold so the growth isn't surprising, but there's also a lot more competition looking for the 1080p crown,but it looks like most are still hopping on the Blu bandwagon.

In a shocking development, Twilight's mostly tween girl audience may not have quite bought into this Blu-ray thing yet, since despite selling 5.2 million copies of the weekend, the movie only managed to move less than 5% of that total on Blu-ray. Making the HD edition available only at Target and Best Buy likely didn't help, but earlier reports pegged the director as extremely pleased about how the vampire's sparkling effect turned out in HD, so Summit Home Entertainment and the BDA may have missed a great opportunity to expand their audience. Well, there's always Twilight 2.

A perfect storm of the slow economy and seasonal affect of new televisions coming in while old models still sit unsold is making right now the time to buy, according to the L.A. Times. It's the answer to the question many of us are constantly asked "when can I get the best deal?" and there's plenty of answers, Black Friday, Super Bowl, or right now during the slow period, but strictly on a dollar sense, from now through the next several months is generally easy picking for bargain hunters, with clearances driving prices low if you can manage to resist the pull of brand new models with their slick features sitting right next to the ones on sale. Any tips on where to look, or at least self control before we pass our own stimulus package?

After Mitsubishi suddenly and unexpectedly suspended production of its flagship LaserVue HDTV in early February, many took the liberty of believing that the end was nigh for this extremely high-end set (given the not-exactly-booming economy). We contacted Mitsubishi in order to follow up, and today we've received direct confirmation that the LaserVue is indeed "back in production." In other words, the supply channels are all moving smoothly again, and whatever caused the issue to begin with truly was simply a snag and not a foreshadowing of the set's death. Too bad this thing is still up near seven grand in many places -- after seeing one in action, it's hard to look at any other technology the same way.

We can't say for sure what exactly the model number is (strange, we know), but LG Electronics is apparently pretty awestruck and excited about moving a million 32-inch LCD TVs over in Europe. Reportedly, the set -- which was introduced last April -- is sold in 26 European countries, and with it reaching the one million mark, it sets the LG record for the most of a single set sold since it entered the sector in 1999. A company official was quoted as saying that since its debut, it has sold 100,000 per month, and that the "key was to design a luxurious model specially to meet the refined tastes of European consumers." Hear that, Europeans? Y'all are refined!

As Samsung, Sony, Toshiba and the rest jockey for position in the overall sales rankings, Tosh is the one that's surprisingly gaining ground. Shortly before naming a new incoming CEO, the company's managing director of Toshiba UK (Andy Bass) stated that things are looking up for the outfit's TV and PC monitor sales. While speaking at the firm's annual product preview, Bass noted that "12 months ago, [Toshiba's] TV business was at the lowest point ever, at just 3.4 percent." That said, 2009 is actually looking to improve, and already it has overtaken Sony for second place in the UK PC monitor and TV marketplace. The only one left to pass is Samsung, but we don't see anyone leapfrogging it for a long, long while.

We've already heard that Best Buy is aiming to spruce up its entire home theater department while undercutting Walmart, and now we're hearing that Panasonic individually is looking to stores more like Best Buy to sell its products. In a rather bizarre move, Panny is reportedly aiming to "tighten distribution" of its products by ditching dealers who add no value (and sell cheap) and sending more product to retailers who are willing to "implement Panasonic's stricter marketing policies and programs" (and sell high). Without getting caught up in the minutiae, what this essentially means is that it'll be harder for independently informed consumers to find Panny products on the cheap, but it'll be easier for the technologically illiterate to find Panny dealers surrounded by informed CSRs and information packets. It's possible that the company is simply trying to improve its image and appeal only to a certain class of people, but for those of us smart enough to do our own research beforehand, it looks like we'll be shopping other brands. Your loss, Panny.