Published:
29-Jan-10
Initial feedback across Europe has revealed mixed 2009 results for the home entertainment sector. Whilst countries including the UK, Spain and Italy are expected to show video consumer spending in decline, spending in France has stabilised after several years and in Germany there are signs of growth. Blu-ray Disc (BD) accounted for a much larger share of sales than in 2008, increasing up to a reported 40 per cent of sales on some key titles in Germany. However, results at the total European level are likely to be depressed by figures from the UK—the only country so far to have reported year end data—which indicate BD has not performed as well as was hoped.
Our take...
The growth or decline in consumer spending in many European markets though 2009 has been driven by the speed of BD adoption. DVD sales were always expected to decline across Europe in 2009, with the possible exception of France. But for markets such as Germany that have shown growth, this has been as a result of an almost threefold increase in BD sales. Indeed, the worst of the European 2009 results can be associated with an increase in BD sales of less than 100 per cent. Sales of BD in the UK increased by only 120 per cent in 2009, not helped by a relatively poor December performance which occurred despite a reporting adjustment that extended 'December' to a six-week rather than five-week period.
The Christmas release slate in 2009 was bereft of a title such as Warner's 2008 release The Dark Knight but there were a number of strong BD titles released in the fourth quarter. However across Europe such titles release dates were focused in late November and the first week of December—in direct contrast to the The Dark Knight's mid-December release—leaving little to excite BD consumers in the critical weeks before Christmas.
UK,
