US: Home entertainment Q1 sales fall 8%

April 16, 2010 - PRLog -- According to the Digital Entertainment Group, consumer spending on home entertainment products including DVD, Blu Ray discs and digitally distributed content, fell 8% to $4.8 billion in the first quarter of 2010 in North America. Last year’s consumer spending was down 5%.

The group said that Blu Ray discs software was a bright spot with sales up 74% in Q1 2010 to 34 million discs shipped to retail accompanied by a 125% growth in Blu Ray discs hardware. In addition, digital delivery rose 27% to $617 million in the first quarter of 2010 from the year ago quarter while total rental was down 14% as a result of brick and mortar store closures by chains like Blockbuster Inc and Movie Gallery.

“We are still facing a challenging environment but are very pleased to see positive indicators of stabilization in our overall business,” said Warner Home Video president Ron Sanders, also president of the DEG. “We are encouraged to see consumers continue to realize the tremendous value of Blu-ray and growing more comfortable with digital delivery.”

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