Josh-da-man

UHD-BR will flop. Or it will end up like 3D BR, and be like a premium on regular blu-ray.

I just don't see UHD catching on. Blu-ray is still a niche format that is seeing its presence at places like Walmart and Target shrinking.

hanshotfirst1138

I'm kind of surprised that that UHD pushed through. It didn't seem like it had a tremendous amount of commercial potential.

PhantomStranger

2016 should be a good year for media with the new Star Wars hitting home video. No one is deluded enough to think Blu-ray will grow going forward, it is a mature market. What owners should hope is a slow, gentle decline in sales.

I actually believe the continuing proliferation of independent streaming services from a variety of different providers will slow that streaming train down a bit. Content is getting locked up to each service and consumers will have to subscribe to 5-10 different providers for all the content they want. People are already starting to make tough choices in that market.

UHD won't be more than a drop in the bucket for several years, if it does anything at all.

orangerunner

If it's any consolation, I was reading that e-books and readers are down 10% over last year as consumers were reverting back to traditional books.

morriscroy

Recently my "tough choice" was dropping every svod service, and going back to minimal hd cable service. (ie. With basic cable channels like amc, aetv, disney xd, etc ...).

I just got sick and tired of going through multiple subscriptions.

d2cheer

We watched Mission Impossible Rogue Nation over the weekend at my brother-in-laws on DVD on a 120 projection screen TV (upconverted). It looked great. My other brother-in-law picked the DVD at redbox and we were worried the DVD would look like shit. If you would have told me it was a blu I would never have known...now I would probably not state that about a DVD issued back in 1997 but today's DVD's look good enough and in the end that is all that matters for most people. The BIL that picked the DVD had never even seen a blu before. We just assumed everyone had a blu ray player by now so didn't specifically tell him to get that.

So yea completely in agreement that blu won't grow but do think it will maintain.

davidh777

Has there been a corresponding increase in traditional books? I could certainly see people dumping their dedicated e-readers for tablets despite the latter's disadvantages (screen, weight, battery) for that particular function.

bruceames

I've been "buying" used books lately through Amazon, often for 1 cent + shipping. Maybe books have been devalued as a result of competition from ebooks (much like DVD and BD), to the point where the pendulum is starting to swing the other way? I don't know if it means more sales for books, but it certainly would affect ebook sales if they're busy reading regular books they can get for almost nothing. Convenience rules for consumers, but only when price doesn't get in the way.

DVD Polizei

But who pushed it through. It certainly wasn't consumers.

BuckNaked2k

December 19:

Adam Tyner

There's zero marketing behind it (at least so far) and not even a definitive launch date, so I guess you could argue that no one's pushing it through (at least not yet).

PhantomStranger

It finally appears the streaming revolution is seriously affecting DVD sales. 23% YOY revenue drops for a busy Christmas shopping week in what has been described as a good Christmas season for consumer spending is fairly damning for DVD.

morriscroy

This seems to be the case for widely released mass market titles.

On the other hand for stuff that isn't widely released, things seem to be more of a mixed bag.

For example, an extreme case of this is college level textbooks. Used copies of current editions can still fetch some coin, while older (but not TOO old) previous editions are largely penny fodder.

bruceames

BuckNaked2k

^ Looking forward the year-end spreadsheet.

PhantomStranger

Blu-ray actually finished the year fairly strongly considering the tailwinds against it. DVD's sales are starting to show serious attrition.

Alan Smithee

Depending on who you believe, some say that Jurassic World sold a ton on Blu-Ray but didn't sell very many on "digital", despite getting an early digital release. I haven't seen the numbers, but I'd be very happy if that were true.

BuckNaked2k

It will be very interesting to see how 2016 unfolds considering that minor release coming out in April.

Spiderbite

I bet the 3D version sold well. Any sales figures?

morriscroy

Do you have a link for this? (Whether posts or actual articles).

Hopefully this is more than just Alan Smithee's "idle fantasies".

BobO'Link

I don't know if I'd "blame" streaming as much as a few more folks purchasing a BR player coupled with the lack of "new" and/or "highly desired" titles being released on DVD. While there *are* new releases the volume seems to be far less than a year, especially two, ago. It's also revenue and many titles have much lower prices than in the past with deep discounts during the holiday season on even new titles. Keep in mind this is idle speculation and I have no numbers to back it up.
I, too, hope this is true. I just don't understand the attraction of digital "ownership" over physical. Sure, go that route for rentals but to *purchase*? Absolutely not.

bunkaroo

Digital ownership is an oxymoron in most cases IMO. Unless you have the content DRM-free and downloaded to a local asset which is not subject to network outages, license revocation, permission issues, etc., you don't own anything when you "buy" the digital version.

orangerunner

I think this is the first time in history where we will see four major formats all competing for market share.

DVD
Blu-ray
UHD-Blu-ray
downloading/streaming

I guess the last time that happened was the early-mid 1980s where we had VHS, Betamax with CED and Laserdisc to a smaller extent.

Alan Smithee

They really need to give regular DVD the boot at this point. VHS was finally put out to pasture when HD-DVD and Blu-Ray came out. You can't buy a new standard-def-only TV anymore, so why keep putting out a standard-def format?

Josh-da-man

DVD still outsells blu-ray by a significant margin. It isn't going anywhere.