OPINION: Good, bad news

By Paul Sweeting -- Video Business, 9/19/2008

SEPT. 19 |

Paul Sweeting is editor of Content Agenda

THERE WAS GOOD NEWS and bad news for the studios at last week’s HDTV 2008 conference sponsored by DisplaySearch.

The good news is that DVDs—by far the studios’ most important revenue stream—remain incredibly popular with consumers despite the hype and noise surrounding digital distribution.

Discs account for 81% of consumer spending on movies, according to DisplaySearch research, compared to only 0.6% spent on movie downloads (18% comes from theatrical ticket sales).

The bad news is, DVDs remain incredibly popular with consumers, accounting for 81% of consumer spending on movies, compared to only 0.6% spent on downloads.

The paradox comes from the fact that while the DVD format remains popular with consumers, it is unquestionably a mature business for the studios. And what the studios ultimately need is for some other format to get popular enough to inject some growth into their business.

Read the full column on ContentAgenda.com.

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