(June 8, 2019) Industry research outfit MediaPlayNews.com recently published two new snapshots that illustrate the current and future movement away from disc-based media.
First up is a report that Global Subscription Video On Demand (SVOD) subscriptions are projected to increase a whopping 86% between now and 2024. That would make for a total of 947 million subscriptions to services spread across some 531 million subscribers; nearly 119 million new subscribers are expected during this year alone.
The bulk of subscribing households reside in 15 different countries around the world, with China leading the way. In fact, China overtook the United States as the largest consumer of subscription based services during 2018.
As we enter 2024, Netflix is expected to remain a dominant force. Disney and its forthcoming Disney + SVOD service is projected to net over 19 million subscribers during the next 4.5 years.
Moving onto discs, the bad news for 4K UHD Blu-ray continues roll in. Over the last year, 4K Blu-ray has taken it on the chin in several ways, including lagging sales and a shrinking disc player market. Now, according to MediaPlayNews, 4K UHD Blu-ray only accounted for a mere 4.2% of “Top 50” disc sales during the last week of May. Blu-ray remained slightly healthier (33.6%), while DVD continues to enjoy a strong presence accounting for 62.2% of sales.
Somehow, someway, DVD remains a preferred platform to purchase, making it more and more apparent that 4K Blu-ray may never overtake its aged sibling.
Additionally, both Blu-ray and DVD sales for the week ending 5-25-2019 are down some 17.71% when compared to the same week last year. That makes for an overall loss of nearly $53.76 million in comparative revenue.
Unfortunately, the writing continues to appear on the wall for 4K Blu-ray.