School summer holidays sorted : Wet weather whets children’s appetite for DVDs and Blu-ray

This year to date, the total number of children’s DVDs sold has reached 12.1 million with school-age titles up by 4.3%on this time last year. Top of the overall children’s charts are family friendly films such as Madagascar – Escape 2 Africa (Paramount Home Entertainment) with almost 900,000
copies sold since its release in April. Another sequel high in the overall Children’s charts this year is Ice Age 2: the Meltdown (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment) which is selling well due to the current cinematic success of the third installment. Although released back in 2006 Ice Age 2 has sold over 330,000 copies in 2009 so far including boxset sales with Ice Age.
 

 

Pre-schoolers are also fuelling demand, with total volumes for that audience reaching 2.1 million, up 2.1% on the same period in 2008. E1 Entertainment’s Peppa Pig series dominates the top of the pre-school chart taking over the first four places with combined sales of over 320,000 copies of the brand in the Top 10.

 

Hannah Conduct, Marketing Manager at the BVA says: ‘These figures are not only great news for the younger DVD market, but also demonstrate that a new generation of home entertainment lovers is developing which is really positivefor the industry. Blu-ray is emerging as a format of choice for children as well, with volumes up 145% on last year. There are some brilliant educational titles available for kids this year which is wonderful for parents, especially over the long (and quite possibly wet) holiday period.’

 

And as the summer holidays get into full swing without the sizzling weather promised by the Met Office, retailers are expecting sales to increase further.

 

Andy Anderson, DVD Manager of HMV says: "In what is currently a very challenging market, HMV has seen the children's genre perform exceptionally well this year. We have seen significant growth on the pre-school sector and are looking forward to making a wide range of school-age children's titles such as Open Season 2, Ben 10, and Dora The Explorer available in-store over the summer. Recent family friendly films such as Hotel for Dogs, Secret of Moonacre and Ace Ventura Jr. have proven to be very popular with our customers."

 

 Strong movers to look out for on release in August are Walt Disney’s Hannah Montana: Season Two, Volumes Three & Four, HiT Entertainment’s Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends box set, and Fremantle Home Entertainment’s Seven Little Monsters: Ahoy Me Monsters.

 

Ends
 

 

 

Video encompasses the home entertainment industry as a whole – from packaged media such as DVD and Blu-ray through to digital downloading onto portable devices and for home consumption, with ever increasing consumer choice of access and price points. The industry releases about 10,000 titles a year and the BVA champions all content delivery channels.

 

Stephanie Blott:

Tel: 0207 618 9165

E-mail: stephanieblott@luther.co.uk

 

 Titles in bold include box-set sales