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Media
Information > Media DVD Coverage 
Archive
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DVD NEWS DIGEST
1 -
Master & Commander (Widescreen) FoxVideo May 8 - Billboard: Fitness Titles: DVD Finally Overtakes VHS Nielsen VideoScan reports that DVD represented 51% of sales for the top 30 fitness titles by mid-March. Nielsen VideoScan also reports that overall DVD sales have eclipsed those of VHS for fitness titles. Fitness, along with kids' titles, is one of the last genres to appeal to consumers on DVD. DVD players are becoming more affordable, accelerating consumers' conversion to the format, according to distributors. "Fitness has lagged behind other categories because people have put the DVD in the den and kept the VCR in the bedroom or where they exercise," said a DVD marketing manager. "DVD players are starting to replace those VCRs."
Patients can watch their favourite film during drilling and root canal work. The inventive dentist who came up with the idea says: "Anything that can make people comfortable and relaxed is great. We all know what it's like when you are in the dentist's chair - you are just thinking about the drill and the pain. "But these glasses help to take people's minds off it and the sound cancels out all the noise of the work. It is better for them and better for me." May 5 - CNET DVD-recorder sales set to soar Some 13 percent of people surveyed by TechnoMetrica Market Intelligence said they were likely to purchase a DVD recorder in the next 12 months. The market researcher sampled about 2,000 American adults for the report. The survey found that consumers are sensitive to price--only 37% said they were willing to pay more than $300 for a DVD recorder. The average price of the devices hovers around $475. Depending on how low prices drop, about 4.5 million units will likely be sold within the next 12 months, resulting in sales of approximately $2 billion, the research firm estimated. For nearly 60% of the consumers surveyed, ease of use is the most important feature that they look for in a DVD recorder. Another 48% voted for image quality. In addition, one-third of interviewees wanted a DVD recorder capable of playing different media. May 4 - USA Today: Women hot target for DVD sales In March of 1999, two years after the DVD format was introduced to the marketplace, 61% of DVDs were purchased by men. By March of this year, women had caught up, making half of DVD purchases. On average, men own 57 DVDs in their collections; women own 34, according to research by Video Store Magazine. Just five years ago, men had 25 and women had 8. A key factor behind the shift is mass merchants such as Wal-Mart and Target becoming more aggressive in marketing DVD than they were in the days of VHS. "I buy classics like Pretty Woman and Jerry Maguire," says a flight attendant. "It's so much more high quality, and it lasts — it doesn't wear out. Tapes get old; DVDs are almost like books." Amy Jo Donner, the executive director of DEG: The Digital Entertainment Group, a coalition of studios and manufacturers that promotes DVD, says she likes to have a collection at home. "I really like to get into the director's chair and see what's going on behind the scenes."
College courses are now available on DVD. They contain lectures by leading professors on such topics as history, music, religion and astronomy. Viewers can learn simply by watching the video courses (or listening to audio editions) with the further advantage of being able to pause the lecture, review any section, and even invite your friends over to watch with you. Each course is 6 to 60 hours long, divided into 30- to 45-minute lectures and accompanied by a 50- to 80-page course guide. The company that produces the DVDs reportedly chooses professors by identifying the best, rated by teaching performance, awards, peer evaluations, and other sources.
DVD-Audio sales remained stagnant in 2003, with a 0.08 percent increase in sales to approximately 400,000, says the RIAA’s “2003 Yearend Statistics” report. Sales for DVD-Audio discs were first tracked in 2001 at about 300,000 units and increased to 400,000 units in 2002. Music industry executives point out that these numbers could be slightly on the low side, because Soundscan allegedly has yet to track DVD-Audio sales on the Internet, which is currently the best place for fans of the format to purchase discs. Nevertheless, total DVD-Audio total sales at this point are many hundreds of times less than that of the CD. Another report released by the RIAA, compiled by Peter Hart Research using 2900 phone interviews with music consumers (error rate reported at +/- 1.8 percent), showed a dramatic increase in market share for DVD-Audio, from 1.1% in 2001 to 1.3% in 2002. In 2003, DVD-Audio’s marketshare bumped up to 2.7%, aided less by their small increase in sales than by the significant decrease in the overall sales of CDs.
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