UK: Cinema and Blu-ray rise in popularity in 2009

Friday, February 12th, 2010

British video market has weathered the recessionary storm in 2009, as total DVD and Blu-ray sales fell from 257.9 million in 2008 to 243.5 million units in 2009, recording a 5.6% decrease, according the British Video Association (BVA).

The decline in DVD  sales was partially offset by a 123% increase in Blu-ray unit sales, which reached 8.4 million units sold in 2009. Although Blu-ray  accounted for only 3.7% of video sales, its rising popularity shows an increasing strength in demand for the high-definition home entertainment format.

This demand, strengthened by the rising HDTV penetration among British households, indicates a possible growth return in 2010 for the home video market.

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Paradoxically, Cinema has benefited disproportionately from the downturn during the past year, as 2009 was the best year for UK cinemas since 2002, with 173,461,335 admissions, a 5.6% increase in 2008. Revenues reached £943,750,158 in 2009. Box office revenues for UK and Ireland also crossed the £1bn milestone for the first time ever.

Many factors can account for this growth. In many countries, recession has encouraged people to turn to less expensive entertainment alternatives such as Cinema.

Another peculiar tendency is the rising popularity of 3D cinemas. In 2009, the 400 3D-equipped cinemas generated on average over three times the gross revenues of their 2D counterparts for the same film. Avatar was an exception, as 3D screens attracted over seven times more visitors that their 2D equivalent did.

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Worldwide Cinema, DVD and VoD revenues for 2009 will soon be available as part of Dataxis Intelligence’s ‘Entertainment’ market research service.