Blu-ray dominating sales charts
Coming as no surprise to anyone, Warner’s sudden endorsement of Blu-ray on 4th January has certainly been felt at retailers nationwide. NPD numbers are in for the first two weeks on January for standalone set-top players and Blu-ray Disc has squashed the competition with a 92.5/7.5 split the week ending 12th January. To show how immediate this change occurred, the previous week (ending 5th January) was 51/49 in Blu’s favor. This does not include the Playstation 3 or the Xbox360 add-on. (Numbers provided by The Digital Bits.)
On the software side of things, it’s an equally massive victory for the Blu camp. Home Media Magazine has posted the Neilson VideoScan numbers for the week ending 13th January and it shows an impressive 85/15 split in favor of Blu-ray, with a year-to-date (YTD) showing 74/26.
If this doesn’t compel the hold-out studios to join/rejoin Blu-ray, I don’t know what will. Perhaps when this trend sticks for over a month it will be clear as day.
