Digital TV News

Are digital movie sales catching up with DVDs?

Friday 02 December, 2011

By Anthony Hill

Non-physical film purchases up 20% in a year.

Interest in digital video is rapidly increasing, but DVDs and Blu-ray reign supreme as Britain’s favourite way to watch movies.

Data published by the British Video Association (BVA) highlights a 20% growth in the value of digital transactions, compared with this time last year.

Physical discs are by far the most popular film media, but digital copies, on-demand movies and downloads have a 15% share of the overall market, with total non-physical sales worth more than £200million so far this year.

However, with 127 million DVD and Blu-ray discs sold or rented in the same period, physical media is by far the UK’s favourite way to watch the latest blockbuster. In fact, non-digital sales have passed £1billion in 2011 to date.

Lavinia Carey, director general of the BVA, said: “There are encouraging signs that this year’s pre-Christmas releases will do better than last, even if it does start a few weeks later than usual.

“For example, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 has recorded bigger pre-sales than any previous Harry Potter release, as well as being second on Amazon UK users’ wish list, after the Kindle reader.”

Other releases tipped for the top of Christmas lists this year include The Planet Collection, a triple-play pack - complete with DVD, Blu-ray and digital copies - including the Planet Earth, Frozen Planet and Blue Planet nature programmes.

Standup comedy also makes a popular gift, with this year’s main competition between Peter Kay’s The Tour That Didn’t Tour Tour, John Bishop’s Sunshine Tour and the first comic to release a 3D Blu-ray, Lee Evans, with his latest show, Roadrunner - Live at the O2.

In a survey of UK shoppers, the BVA found that 90% think a DVD or Blu-ray disc makes an ideal Christmas present.