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Can Hardcopy Media Just Die Already?

Earlier this week in Paid Content there was a cogent analysis of the state of the home entertainment business, especially relating to the balance of hardcopy media and download sales.

Best of all though was the headline, which read “The Bleeding In The Home Entertainment Business Slowed In 2011.”

As headlines go, that’s on a par with the one from The Onion which deadpanned “Iraq Victory Enters Tenth Year.” Except that the latter is deliberately ironic and sarcastic.

Let’s recap: According to Digital Entertainment Group, home entertainment revenue has slid for seven years running, but last year the decline was only 2 percent.

WOO! Break out the champagne and the party hats!


Total content sales in 2011 were $18.4 billion, down from a peak of $21.8 billion in 2004.

Blu-ray sales, despite attempts to spin the numbers, sucked: $2 billion in sales. Contrast that DVD’s insistence on hanging in, and delivering $7.9 billion in sales.

No matter how you spin it, that’s an appalling performance for Bluray a format that received the most intense marketing push since, well, DVD.

I have to wonder what Bluray’s sales would have looked like if movies weren’t being sold in Bluray/DVD combo packs. I think it would have been worse. When you have to sneak a format into people’s houses by bundling it with a DVD, that’s a clear sign that it’s unwelcome.

Compare Bluray’s performance to digital delivery, which encompasses everything from VOD to iTunes: $2.36 billion, up 4.1 percent from 2010.

In my household, which I consider to probably be typical for tech savvy families, media consumption is about 70% Netflix, 20%VOD/PPV/HD-PVR, and 10% DVD. The latter is a combination of purchase and borrowing from the public library.

The only Bluray discs in the house came with the DVD combo packs.

That ratio is only going to continue to squeeze out hardcopy until one day soon it’s gone completely.

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