DEG says industry off 5.5% in 2008

Blu-ray Disc shipments, sales tripled

By Marcy Magiera -- Video Business, 1/7/2009

JAN. 7 | DEG: The Digital Entertainment Group said today that U.S. consumer spending on packaged home entertainment fell by 5.5% in 2008, to $22.4 billion.

The total encompasses rental and sales of DVD and high-definition disc formats.

High-def disc spending, primarily Blu-ray Disc, almost tripled during the year, however, reaching $750 million, according to DEG figures compiled with input from all the major studios.

Blu-ray software shipments grew 250%, to 63.2 million units in 2008, from 18 million units in 2007, DEG said.

Sales of Blu-ray players, including videogame consoles, meanwhile, grew to almost 10 million units since the format’s launch, according to DEG. In the fourth quarter alone, 3 million devices were sold, the trade group said.

Consumer spending on DVD purchases fell more dramatically than the total, declining by 9%, to about $14.5 billion, according to DEG, while rental spending, including kiosk transactions, was flat. In total, consumer spending on DVD rentals and sales combined fell 7.3%, to $21.6 billion, according to DEG.

DVD shipments also were down during the year, declining to 1.4 billion units, an almost 15% drop from 2007 unit shipments.

Video Business will release its own year-end analysis, including consumer spending totals and studio market share, on Jan. 19.