DEG Report Shows Discs Still Tower Above Online Sales, Rentals

都怪我 《百家乐软件》至少在DVD销售方面是这样. But, also blame it on Redbox when it comes to online video rentals and sales.

的数码娱乐集团(DEG), 工作室的会员制组织, 零售商, 电子快递公司, released a report this weekend showing that DVD sales have fallen off precipitously in the second quarter of 2011 versus the same timeframe in 2010. 的 report also shows that online video sales are growing slowly.

“与去年的销售额相比，情况严重失衡,DEG在报告中说, citing the fact that 《百家乐软件》's release generated sales of almost 12 million discs in its first month of release in Q2 2010. "Yet the underlying numbers in the latest quarter show encouraging signs."

Two of those encouraging signs come from the online rental and sales of blockbuster entertainment, though DEG cautions that online video may still have significant competition from the physical medium.

“电子销售增长了4%,报告称, showing that electronic purchases of movies (not rentals) have risen from $259 million to $270 million between the first half of 2010 and the same timeframe in 2011.

这与dvd的实体销售相比如何? In the same time period, DVD sales dropped over 18 percent from $4.70亿美元到不到30亿美元.90亿年.

的 drop in blockbuster entertainment sales was not as great when electronic sell-through was included, accounting for a drop of only 17 percent against last year's almost $5 billion in sales.

Still, electronic sell-through faces a steep curve, as it accounts for only 6.占家庭娱乐内容销售总额的5%. Even the addition of video-on-demand rentals of blockbuster entertainment, which itself is up four percent over the same period last year, only accounts for roughly 20 percent of all home entertainment media consumption in the U.S.

为什么电子产品销售滞后? Three trends appear to affect electronic sell-throughs: ownership of physical media, 蓝光播放器的兴起, 以及租用物理介质的相对便利.

第一个, 磁盘的物理所有权, 无论是蓝光还是DVD, is a topic we've covered at length before on StreamingMedia.com

“我意识到DVD是一种过时的格式, but having a physical copy of a film (not digital) is the only way to guarantee you can watch a favorite movie whenever you want,一个Deadline说。.com论坛讨论成员对DEG报告的评论. "I'm definitely buying fewer DVDs these days, but my existing DVD library ain't going anywhere."

A few commenters countered with the issue of DVD players being a dying technology.

“这是数字时代，”评论者Aeiouy写道. “别再卖八轨磁带和盒式磁带了."

Yet DEG points out that the physical media player market is actually growing.

“在第二季度, the number of Blu-ray 房屋 grew 16 percent over 2010 (inclusive of BD set-tops, ps3, 和HTiBs),DEG的报告指出, "bringing the total household penetration of all Blu-ray compatible devices to more than 31.600万美元.S. 房屋."

蓝光播放器的崛起, many of which now have Wi-Fi or Ethernet access to online video content, could lend credence to the claim that consumers are watching more online video of the non-blockbuster variety.

虽然这很可能是真的, it appears that Blu-Ray sales themselves have risen almost 10 percent year over year, 尽管DVD销量直线下降.

Finally, the question of accessibility to physical discs is an important factor. Whether rentals occurred through subscription services such as Netflix or Blockbuster-a category which grew over 44 percent year-over-year to $1.5 billion for the first half of 2011-or through kiosk sales from services such as Redbox, the ability for a consumer to watch a movie through convenient physical discs remains a challenge in the quest for online video sales and rentals to match their offline counterparts.

的 primary factor in the current stagnant economy may be as much about price as it is about convenience.

"Nobody wants to dare pin the culprit on the simple fact that every Walmart has a few Redboxes positioned at the entrance,Deadline写道。.网站评论员Frank Tien说. "Why buy the movie when you can watch it overnight for a buck. And a buck a night is less rental value than Blockbuster's old $4 a night."

Tien's comments point out that online video rental prices for VOD are still based on the old Blockbuster model.

A recent comparison of Amazon's rental price for the newly released real-life drama SoulSurfer 显示Redbox的租金是1美元.10美元和3美元.99美元来自亚马逊的点播服务, with two locations within one mile of my home in a small town in Tennessee. 在较大的城市，物理可达性甚至更大.

“当我第一次搬到我的社区,天写道。, "we had five Blockbuster videos and a Hollywood video in three miles of my house. 在不到五年的时间里，它们都消失了. 但现在这个地区到处都是红盒子. 有三个人在一个十字路口."