Posted Fri Jul 10, 2009 at 11:00 AM PDT by Mike Attebery
Sales have skyrocketed, while traditional DVD sales have dropped slightly.
According to the British Video Association, roughly 3.1 million Blu-ray discs have sold in the UK since the beginning of this year, a marked increase on the numbers from 2008. It might be more accurate to say a whopping increase, as sales are up an estimated 231%. Interestingly though, the increase in Blu-ray sales doesn’t seem to have affected DVD sales as much as one might expect. While traditional DVDs sold less this year, it was only by about 9.5%.
According to Hannah Conduct of the BVA, "The continuing success of Blu-ray is testament to the growth of consumer confidence in the high definition format… Seeing is believing with Blu-ray and the figures show that once consumers have experienced the format, they continue to spend their money on the product.”
Addressing the issue of piracy and digital distribution, the BVA’s director general Lavinia Carey stated "People must also be increasingly tempted to search out methods of downloading illicit content for free on the Internet, [but] with an increasing number of new internet services coming on stream, the industry is aiming to encourage greater consumer up-take of legitimate downloads”
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