DVD GROWS WHILE VHS STAYS ON THE SHELF

A NEW report has been released by Screen Digest, examining what the next three years hold in store for consumers and companies in the home video market.
The report reveals that the UK has the world’s fastest growing DVD market with a 1000 per cent rise in DVD hardware sales in 1998/99. France tops the league of DVD players installed and Germany has the highest number of DVDs sold per household.
The findings of the report state that the uptake of DVD is growing at an exponential rate that will see DVD hardware in 28 per cent of households in less than three years, despite almost all current and imminent DVD hardware being players not recorders the rate of adoption is far faster than for VCR.
The report states by the end of 2003, after just six years the number of households owning a DVD player will have reached levels that took VCR ten years to achieve.
By 2003, total consumer spending on video titles in Western Europe will have grown by over a third of 1999 values, a rise of Euro 2.1 billion with the spending on DVD titles predicted to overtake spending on VHS.
Ben Keen of Screen Digest said: “There can be little doubt that DVD is going to change the video market radically over the next few years. Even where DVD has yet to make a positive impact on companies’ bottom lines, it has been welcomed as the future of the video industry and many more players look set to enter the market to attempt to capitalise on its opportunities. In terms of the future, two of the key issues will be the effects that Region 1 imports and the future piracy potential of recordable DVD’s will have on the market.”
It is estimated by the end of 2000 5.4 million homes in Western Europe with at least one DVD video player. By the end of 2003 it is predicted that almost 45 million households across Europe, over 28 percent will have some form of DVD player hooked up to their television set.
The value of the VHS market is expected to halve by 2003, falling from a 1999 total of Euro 5.7 billion to purchases worth Euro 3.7 billion and rentals Euro 2 billion.