Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2009/02/24/futuresource_bluray_prediction/
Blu-ray Disc sales to hit 100m by Xmas
Analyst forecasts global splurge
Posted in Personal Tech, 24th February 2009 11:35 GMT
Punters across North America, Western Europe and Japan will buy in excess of 100m Blu-ray Discs by the end of 2009 - almost three times as many as were sold in 2008, a market watcher has predicted.
The Futuresource Consulting group also forecast that, by 2012, around 50 per cent of US and 35 per cent of Western European pre-packaged video retail sale volumes will be BDs.
But the market watcher’s prediction isn’t that startling given existing predictions for future Blu-ray sales, and is based largely on one simple fact: a greater prevalence of HD TVs in the market and the falling prices of Blu-ray players.
Mai Hoang, Senior Market Analyst at Futuresource, stated that the UK’s now the largest market for Blu-ray Discs in Western Europe. “With sales of more than 3.5m units in 2008, it [the UK] represented over 40 per cent of the West European total.”
The market watcher’s Managing Director, Jim Bottoms, also shed some light onto which genres of Blu-ray films will prove increasingly popular this year.
“The action adventure genre dominates, appealing strongly to the young male technology adopter, which also closely matches the PlayStation 3 owner profile,” he said.
"For some high profile titles, close to 25 per cent of all disc sales have been on BD," he added, "while other action adventure titles consistently see BD accounting for over 15 per cent of total sales. ®