The new Blue gems of home entertainment, Blu-ray players, are likely to remain the dominant force throughout the economic downturn and beyond, says a report from Screen Digest.

 

Blu-ray players have been the preferred formats of movie watching for the movie industry for a while. Since a Blu-ray disk can hold significantly more data than the DVDs, more quality content can be packed in a Blu-ray disk. A number of movie titles have been released in this format and customers are often encouraged to go for this format. 

 

The screen digest report claims that consumers in Europe will spend Euro 11.4bn buying packaged media (DVDs and BDs), an increase of 25 percent on the Euro 9.3bn spent in 2007.

 

The new Blu-ray format will generate 45 percent of this figure, up from a projected three percent this year, says the report.

 

Richard Cooper, Screen Digest Analyst says, "A shortage of cheaper Blu-ray players means that the sub-$300 machines that are already appearing on US shelves are unlikely to materialize in Europe this Christmas. Combined with the recession, this means the format is unlikely to move much beyond the early adopter market this year.”

 

Richard expects BD hardware prices to fall in 2009. As a result, he says even the cost conscious customers will start upgrading their existing DVD players to this new format.

 

 

Along with the Blu-Ray market, other segments such as video game software and digital TV will also experience increased sales this season holiday season, notes a report from ABI Research. ABI's survey of 1,600 households found that 40 percent of respondents would spend the same as usual, while 13 percent of consumers said they will probably spend more this season.