Contrary to analysis that I’ve read elsewhere, Blu-ray is on life support.

Despite some of the boosterism that’s accompanied the Year-Over-Year growth
numbers for Blu-ray, the numbers are hardly encouraging for a format that’s
nearly five years old now. 26% of packaged-media sales revenue? Compared to
DVD’s 74%? Hooray, that’s real growth.

So what’s stopping the studios from pulling the plug on DVD? That’s what one
columnist in another magazine predicted will happen by year end. Surely then
Blu-ray would be 100% of packaged media sales revenue?

Maybe it’s because then it would constitute 100% of a much, much smaller
pie.

At the same time streaming is going gangbusters. But we already know that.
Instead I’m going to point to two omens that I feel signify the impending
doom of Blu-ray.

First is the prevalence of Blu-ray/DVD combo packs for new releases. Every
time I go to Costco, most of the new release Blu-ray’s are combo packs.
Seriously, they have to sneak Blu-ray into your house by bundling it with a
DVD copy?

Second, the number of Blu-ray players that have Netflix embedded in them. So
Netflix is a selling feature for Blu-ray players? Does no one else see how
ironically absurd that is?

So there, I said it. If you think I’m wrong, let me know in the comments
section below.