DVDEmpire compares Blu-ray, HD DVD sales
By Susanne Ault -- Video Business,01/17/2007
JAN. 17 | DVDEmpire.com is chronicling the high-definition format battle by offering one of the first public comparisons of Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD sales.
Launched this month, the “HD Wars” tracker tells site visitors what percentage of the site’s high-def title sales are BD or HD DVD on a weekly, monthly and yearly basis. Also, the tracker counts up the number of BD and HD DVD releases studios have streeted thus far.
HD Wars can be found at either the BD or HD DVD sections of DVDEmpire.com.
“We just thought it was something interesting to add,” said Shannon Nutt, DVDEmpire.com editorial director. “People are interested in seeing how the two formats are doing against each other. Obviously, we keep track of this in-house. But it’s also something that our customers will be interested in for awhile.”
For some time, www.eProductWars.com (formerly known as www.thedvdwars.com) has been comparing BD and HD DVD sales rankings at Amazon.com.
However, DVDEmpire.com appears to be the first retailer to report clearly to its shoppers how the two formats are stacking up.
For the week including Tuesday, Jan. 16, DVDEmpire.com noted that 57.7% of its high-def sales were BD and 42.3% were HD DVD. But for 2006, HD DVD led at 59.16% to BD at 40.84%.
Through Jan. 16, DVDEmpire.com counted 190 HD DVD releases and 203 BD releases.
At this point, DVDEmpire.com is vowing to treat the two sides evenly.
If one format appears to be consistently in the lead, “we will not give more weight to one or the other … as far as promotion,” said Nutt.
He believes the recent roll-out of PlayStation 3 is giving Blu-ray an edge currently.
DVDEmpire.com isn’t making predictions for future movement between the two formats.
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| Submitted by: | mrbign 2/7/2007 9:52:52 PM PT |
| Location: | australia |
| Occupation: | IT systems |
Who cares how many titles are released. Surely sales are the key aren't they. On the site they list 221 BDs of which 51 are pre-releases or pre-announcements. I couldn't be bothered counting the HD-DVDs as well. I don't know how their figures work as a result.
If buzz means anything then here in Australia BD will wipe the floor with HDDVD but DVD will still rule them both.
| Submitted by: | Mr Satyre 1/18/2007 10:28:42 AM PT |
| Location: | USA |
| Occupation: | Marketing & Product Planning |
I find these numbers to be misleading, as my tally (based on studio-confirmed listings) of titles for both formats actually available in the stores as of 1/23/07 (not including titles announces with solid street dates) to be as follows: HD DVD = 160; and BD = 146. It seems to me that they are either getting intentionally biased numbers from either the studios or the reseller(s), or they are including titles which have been announced, but are neither in the stores or have announced street dates. Figuring in to the mix titles which aren't physically available doesn't make any sense.
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