MONDAY TO KICK OFF BIGGEST FORTNIGHT OF THE YEAR FOR VIDEO SALES
28 November 2011: Nearly 90% of us say DVDs and Blu-ray Discs make a great Christmas present but many people are waiting until Monday , when the final big video releases hit the shelves, to get their Christmas shopping started. A new consumer trend to put off the Christmas shopping until now will coincide with the release dates of what industry hopes will be the biggest sellers this Christmas.
Blockbuster titles set for release over the coming days, include: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (Warner Home Video, release 2/12/11); The Inbetweeners Movie (4DVD, released 12/12/11); Rise of the Planet of the Apes (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, released 12/12/11); The Smurfs (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, released 5/12/11); Frozen Planet (2 entertain, released 8/12/11); Transformers: Dark of the Moon (Paramount Home Entertainment, released 28/11/11). On the UK’s most popular day for watching a film over the Christmas holidays , Christmas at Downton is coming out on Boxing Day (Universal Pictures). At the same, time figures from the British Retail Consortium suggest that many consumers have delayed their Christmas shopping and have caused a build up in demand for gifts .
The fact that many of the year’s biggest box office hits will be on the shelves slightly later than usual coincides with the continuing growth of online shopping from all the key video entertainment retailers, means there are some great gifts available this year – exactly when people want to buy them. As well as the titles above, a number of keenly anticipated box sets and Triple-Play packs (DVD, Blu-ray Disc and Digital Copy) such as the complete Harry Potter collection (2/12/11) and The Planet Collection (8/12/11) including Planet Earth, Frozen Plant and the Blue Planet will be out in time for this sales “sweet spot”.
Christmas is traditionally the most important time of year for video sales thanks to the gifting market. Indeed, over the last four years December has represented on average more than 21% of total physical volume sales and the industry is looking forward to an even better month this year. Live Comedy in particular, which sold over 60% of its total physical volume sales as a genre in December last year, is geared up to fulfil Christmas demand, with the big comedy acts already available for sale, including Peter Kay-Live –The Tour That Didn’t Tour Tour (Universal Pictures), Lee Evans-Roadrunner – Live at the O2 (Universal Pictures, the first comedy to be released on 3D Blu-ray) and John Bishop-Live – Sunshine Tour (2entertain).
Lavinia Carey, Director General of the BVA, said:
“2011 has been a tough year for all UK retailers and video entertainment is not immune but music video, TV, children’s and other genres over-index in December and 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 No 2 on Amazon.co.uk users’ wish list, after the Kindle, and has out-performed its forecasts in other countries.
“With Blu-ray hardware sales increasing by 19% since this time last year, and in the last three months more people are buying 3D Blu-ray players than standard Blu-ray, this should help drive Blu-ray Disc sales to build on the 16.6% increase already seen so far in 2011. In the run up to Christmas many people will be looking for great quality and value during the gifting season.”
Interest in digital video services is growing, as demonstrated by the 20% year-on-year increase in the value of digital transactions , announced today by the British Video Association, giving this format a 15% share of the overall video market worth £206.3 million to the end of Q3, versus £1.14 billion value of the physical retail and rental sectors. However, the BVA points out that physical discs are by far the most popular way to watch video entertainment, with over 127 million physical purchases so far this year. For Christmas shoppers looking to suit the whole family, many big titles are released as Triple-Play, which contains a high-definition Blu-ray Disc, standard definition DVD and a digital copy for portable devices all in one pack.
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Notes to Editors
1. Including all digital and physical retail and rental transactions the 2011 video market was worth £1,345bn to the end of September, down 6% on 2010 and broadly in line with reductions in discretionary spend, reported by the Nationwide reports at an all-time low, down 12 points year on year to 77 points in September.
2. Third quarter figures quoted in this release are the first to be reported using an improved Official Chart Company methodology to report sales value. The BVA has therefore adjusted 2010 total sales of video entertainment as £2.3 billion (including digital transactions) rather than £2.6 billion, as published in the 2011 BVA Yearbook.
For more information and/or images to illustrate the story, please contact Stephanie Blott or Esme Knight on 020 7618 9116 or email bva@luther.co.uk.
About the BVA
The British Video Association exists to champion video entertainment in all its forms, from packaged media such as DVD and Blu-ray Discs through to digital services available on demand, to rent or to own on portable devices and for home viewing.
The proliferation of content delivery channels is increasing consumer choice and the video industry releases about 8,000 titles a year, on which consumers spent £2.3 billion in 2010. It is the single most valuable part of the audiovisual sector in terms of generating returns on investment for production.
The BVA’s members include film companies, television companies and independent labels who produce, license and distribute pre-recorded video entertainment, covering film, sport & fitness, music, TV, children’s and special interest programming. Its members account for some 90% of the sector.
The 2011 BVA Yearbook is available for purchase. Please see www.bva.org.uk for details.
