Consumers find comfort in disc

 Why?

The resilience of DVDs is due to their overall fit with home needs. Consumers say they love them as they:

• need no explanation or specialist knowledge – it doesn’t matter how technical you are;
• can be used by everyone in the home – from infants to centurions;
• remain easy to gift and share – their ubiquity means over 90% of homes has a DVD playing device.

The physical nature of the DVD is also very important to many consumers. A disc is often perceived as more substantial due to being tangible and therefore consumers place a higher value on it.

In short, DVDs provide shoppers and viewers of screen entertainment with comfort.  

 Blu-ray continues to have the highest level of satisfaction amongst its buyers than any other video format.

 Where?

DVDs are widely available to buy from over 14,000 retailers nationwide, including online with supermarkets accounting for the sales of one in two DVDs and one in three Blu-rays. Popular retail chains include HMV, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Morrison’s and Amazon.

Consumers are now also buying more through less traditional outlets, such as fashion and DIY stores, garden centres and petrol stations. It is estimated that these non-traditional stores now represent approximately around one in ten sales.

Consumers both plan and buy on impulse

One quarter of the adult British population buy DVDs on impulse with a similar proportion buying as part of a planned purchase.

Planned purchases make up half of all sales and over 60 percent of retail spend as they tend to be for higher priced New Release titles. Impulse purchases make up just under half of all sales and 40 percent of all consumers’ spend on discs.

Two thirds of retail spend on Blu-ray are planned purchases.

 The gift that keeps giving

One quarter of DVD and one sixth of Blu-ray sales are bought as gifts throughout the year.

Q4 (October – December) regularly accounts for more than one third of DVD and Blu-ray sales volume as key titles are released as ideal Christmas gifts. Two fifths of spend on TV titles is in Q4. A decade ago the category was more reliant on Q4 as it represented one half of all sales, whereas today volume is spread more evenly across the year as a result of both changing release strategies and consumer behaviour.