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Media
Information > Media DVD Coverage 
Archive
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| Updated February 7, 2005 DVD
NEWS DIGEST Jan. 15 - Billboard: Top 10 DVD Sellers in US 1 -
Napoleon Dynamite FoxVideo
Top selling titles of 2004 1.
Shrek 2 Top selling DVDs of all time 1.
Finding Nemo, 2003, 28 million
Consumers spent a record $21.2 billion renting and buying DVDs in 2004, according to Digital Entertainment Group. DVD retail sales grew to $15.5 billion in 2004, an increase of 33 percent over last year. In addition, consumers also spent $5.7 billion renting DVDs.
As DVD reaches new converts (about 70% of homes have players), those newcomers are expected to buy fewer DVDs than early adopters of the format. And those who have had DVD players for a while may be getting pickier about their purchases even as prices of some new releases drop below $15. Sales of the average new feature DVD dropped 6% last year, according to Adams Media Research. Still, DVD continues to grow at double-digit rates, and the firm sees no reason to expect that there will be an actual decline in video sales in the foreseeable future. Studios could stoke revenue with new DVDs that deliver high-definition video that's crisper and more three-dimensional than current DVD. Early adopters might spring for expensive new disc players and, once again, buy new versions of their favorite films.
DVD recorders will supersede standalone DVD players within the next four years, newly published market research has predicted. Analyst IDC said that revenues from DVD player semiconductors will plummet by a compound annual rate of 21 per cent to $637.8m in 2008. In contrast, DVD recorder semiconductor revenue is expected to achieve a compound growth rate of almost 40 per cent over the period and reach $3bn in 2008. IDC also predicted that overall DVD semiconductor revenue will grow from $2.4bn to $3.7bn, and that DVD recorder semiconductors will be the dominant market force. The IDC market analysis found that integration is the leading trend, and an important cost reduction driver for DVD players in today's market.
A few thousand Americans received brand new DVD players during the recent holiday season, but not from family or friends. They're not even from someone they know. The DVD players went to members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the folks who vote on the Oscars. The DVD players are the latest attempt to curb piracy. The DVD movie screeners sent to voters are encrypted so that they can only play on one brand of player. The copies are also watermarked so if one does get out, it can be traced back to the source.
Sales of music-related DVD's are a welcome piece of news for major labels still suffering from declines in CD sales. And, although DVD prices are falling, profit margins are still generally higher than for CD's. And DVD content is still less susceptible to illegal downloading than audio content because the files are so much bigger. In some cases, DVD's also offer a way of making money from the untold number of hours of concert footage owned by the music industry. Right now, DVD's represent a small fraction of the music business. But labels are factoring the format into business plans.
A growing number of consumers, angered at paying late fees for their DVD rentals, are signing up for mail-order services. Americans paid about $1.3 billion this year in late fees, according to Adams Media Research. The firm says 4.7 million Americans will have subscribed to a mail-order DVD service by the end of 2004, and predicted that number would jump to 17 million by 2009. Here's how the typical mail order service works: a customer signs up online and creates a list of movies in order of preference. The DVD's, two to three at a time depending on the service, are then shipped to the customer's home in that sequence, depending on availability. The DVD's (the largest three companies do not rent videocassettes) come with return-postage-paid envelopes that the customer can use to mail the film back. In a day or so, the online account is updated to show that the DVD has been returned, and the next film on the list is mailed out. Most services notify customers via e-mail when movies are shipped and returned. Movies can be returned all at once or one at a time, because separate return postage is provided for each film. end
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