As sales trends over the Christmas shopping period are being charted an interesting trend is starting to come into focus. While the overall figures have continued to favor Blu-ray over HD DVD in terms of Title sales, higher player sales due to superior prices is finally starting to pay off for HD DVD supporters. Blockbusters such as 'The Bourne Ultimatum' and 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix' on HD DVD are reversing a long running trend by outselling their Blu-ray equivalents.
As each side in this format war has spent the year positioning themselves to deliver a knockout blow and claim the title of Successor to DVD for themselves, every comparison between the two has been followed by a loud (and usually at least partly justified) declaration from the other that the numbers are biased and misleading. Among common complaints are counting game consoles as Blu-ray standalones and free (as in Buy one, Get one) titles as sales.
Ken Graffeo, Universal executive VP of marketing and co-president of the North American HD DVD Promotional Group said “I think the fourth quarter is going to be interesting,” said Graffeo. “If you break out the hits, I think we will be even. But the aggressive discounting, with catalog [of buy one, get one free offers], can inflate the numbers.”
“This is a real testament to the momentum we are gaining with the set-top players,” said Graffeo. “We are beginning to realize the attach rate with movie sales.”
Of course, as with all comparisons between HD DVD and Blu-ray this will no doubt get equal spin from both sides until the only clear fact that remains is we still don't have a dominant HD disc format yet.
Source: Video Business
Ken Graffeo, Universal executive VP of marketing and co-president of the North American HD DVD Promotional Group said “I think the fourth quarter is going to be interesting,” said Graffeo. “If you break out the hits, I think we will be even. But the aggressive discounting, with catalog [of buy one, get one free offers], can inflate the numbers.”
“This is a real testament to the momentum we are gaining with the set-top players,” said Graffeo. “We are beginning to realize the attach rate with movie sales.”
Of course, as with all comparisons between HD DVD and Blu-ray this will no doubt get equal spin from both sides until the only clear fact that remains is we still don't have a dominant HD disc format yet.
Source: Video Business
