The Future of Home Video

[FrauBlucher]

Where's the Love? — Is Hollywood Abandoning Disc, Once its Golden Goose, Too Fast?

[Walter Kurtz]

$24B in 2006 converts to $36B in 2022 dollars. 2022 sales + rentals were $2B... heading to $1.5B (down 26% so far) in 2023. Thus 2023 will see a reduction of approx. 96% from the 2006 peak.

May the last one out please turn off the lights and shut the door.

[Matt]

According to Bill Hunt at The Digital Bits, Best Buy has announced that they’re exiting the physical media business in 2024.

[Boosmahn]

Not surprised with how much they've scaled back their in-store displays over the years. This'll still sting, though, as I always went to a local Best Buy every Black Friday to get Blu-rays. It's always been kind of an event...

The closure of the only B&N in Chicago with a physical media section (through no fault of its own... the building owner denied them from renewing) removed my ability to buy Criterion and Arrow releases in person, and this leaves Target and Walmart for new studio releases.

[MichaelB]

I was in Poland last month, and visiting two separate branches of Empik (their largest physical media chain) supported already widespread rumours that they've pretty much given up on home video - one branch didn't have any video releases of any kind, while the other half featured a single shelving unit with a mere handful of DVDs (no Blu-rays) - it was a fraction of the size of the video section since my last pre-pandemic visit.

And the range of new Polish-label releases available via their website has similarly shrunk drastically, which suggests that they're simply no longer being produced for the most part. Conversely, there's now a ton of recent Polish titles available via streaming (Netflix in particular), but I'm finding it increasingly hard to pick up copies of the more impressive films from the various Gdynia Film Festival competitions, which neither end up on streaming services (at least not outside Poland) nor get physical releases.

[Gregory]

The closure of the only B&N in Chicago with a physical media section (through no fault of its own... the building owner denied them from renewing) removed my ability to buy Criterion and Arrow releases in person, and this leaves Target and Walmart for new studio releases.

That's unfortunate for those who worked and shopped in that B&N location, of course, but I wonder if there could be hope for a new Chicago location that sells home video formats.
Even though it's looked like chain bookstores would only wither away over the past decade and a half, Barnes and Noble has managed a renewed expansion, recording 17 new store openings through the end of August and aiming to have opened 30–40 by the end of the year. (I don't have a list of them, but my source on this news is the book distributor Ingram.) It would be interesting to know how many of these stock nonbook media.

[hearthesilence]

According to Bill Hunt at The Digital Bits, Best Buy has announced that they’re exiting the physical media business in 2024.

Bummer, but given how much they scaled things back, it's no surprise. The last time I bought anything from them was in 2016, when they were one of the few brick-and-mortar vendors I could find who hadn't sold out of David Bowie's Blackstar the first day of its release (and the only one who was selling it for $10). But before that, I can count on one hand how many times I visited them in the last 14 years for either physical copies of music or movies.

[Michael Kerpan]

I believe our nearest Best Buy had already ditched almost all physical media by early this year.

[pianocrash]

The closure of the only B&N in Chicago with a physical media section (through no fault of its own... the building owner denied them from renewing) removed my ability to buy Criterion and Arrow releases in person, and this leaves Target and Walmart for new studio releases.

That's unfortunate for those who worked and shopped in that B&N location, of course, but I wonder if there could be hope for a new Chicago location that sells home video formats.
Even though it's looked like chain bookstores would only wither away over the past decade and a half, Barnes and Noble has managed a renewed expansion, recording 17 new store openings through the end of August and aiming to have opened 30–40 by the end of the year. (I don't have a list of them, but my source on this news is the book distributor Ingram.) It would be interesting to know how many of these stock nonbook media.

One closed into the pandemic nearby, and was replaced in a smaller footprint venue about 15 minutes away. The new location is wall to wall with books, but I don't hold much hope for any future locations to house physical media, specifically because the layout is a fortress of well-lit surveillance. In that arrangement, I would only think physical media would be allowable behind the counter, so browsing would be ultra-reduced, in that case, and that was one of the biggest faults of that already-closed location (I used to find wrappers all around the store, and would bring them to the already thinly-spread staff, who obviously hated to see it).

Super Target, a few doors down from the new B&N, still has a relatively robust media section, though most of it is K-Pop CD EPs & Taylor Swift vinyl. Another smaller Target has been locking everything up from toothpaste to phone cases, so all the lower totem media will probably be shifted out sooner than later, save kid-oriented material like Marvel movies or seasons of The Office.

Locally, Criterion releases are available the day of at Vintage Stock, a midwest retailer for mostly used media, which also offers to rent any title out, which will turn into a "used" item upon return. The majority of the store is standard formats (CD/LPs/tapes/DVDs), along with lots of video games, toys, anime sundries, the occasional samurai sword in a glass case, etc., and they routinely have buy 2 get 1 free on everything used (usually aligned with national holidays), so deals can be had, eventually. I don't know how well they're doing as a company that is primarily staffed by part-time teenagers (the full-time manager is always the older guy with the Camaro in the parking lot), but they seem like the last place standing, at least locally (there are 10 locations in a 30 mile radius of me, currently).

[eddyinblu]

Yeah, Brody is right on. The bottom line is the DVD, bluray, UHD is yours and yours alone. You are at the mercy of no one, whether it's a studios streaming services taking away from you or a studios editing films due to societal trends

I think yes, that is a huge part of it. I do like it a lot that once we own a Blu Ray - or 4k Blu Ray - it cannot be removed by anyone

But to me no that isn't the main point. If you have the right system - I have an incredible system - a Blu Ray has far superior picture quality than any 4K streaming. Far superior. And the sound? Can't even compare. Especially the compression of the sound on streaming is abysmal

You can slap Dolby Atoms all you want on a streaming but a DTS-HD MA 5.1 track on a standard Blu Ray will absolutely devastate a Dolby Atmos streaming. Again, on the right system

And once you get into 4K UHD Blu Ray and Dolby Atmos / DTS:X on a physical support it's not even a contest

So I get the ownership issue and it does matter, sometimes you just wanna watch a movie you love and you don't wanna worry that the rights jumped from one streamer to another, or that they were removed altogether

But to me the absolute issue is quality of picture and sound. You can't even make a comparison. It's like going to the best IMAX as opposed to Screen 35 of a local multiplex somewhere. You can't compare

[FrauBlucher]

Hollywood Reporter...Why the Dying DVD Business Could Be Headed for a Resurrection

[tenia]

I've read such articles humpteen times over these past 5 to 10 years (JoBlo just published a similar one), there's little to do with it. It's very approximative, clearly written by someone outside the market, conflating all the formats behind the "DVD business", mismatching the market's activity with its size, and extrapolating something that will never happen based on something that actually only a small fraction of the audience cares about, naively thinking it might be enough of an issue to make a non-negligible number of consumers go back to a way of watching movies and shows they deemed obsolete or not that interesting 15 years ago.

Because that last bit often is forgotten when discussing this : people started to massively leave the home video physical market way before SVOD skyrocketted. While the ongoing "purges" solely made for tax write-offs are absolute shameful money-grabs in the worst capitalistic fashion, in a time and day when dozenns of new shows and movies are released weekly on SVOD services that are more numerous than ever before and have more subscribers than ever before, the utmost majority of people will move on to the next show in a heartbeat.

They weren't buying home video releases before, may have done so with DVD for 5 years, and then stopped. They aren't going to go back to such a time-limited practice, and hopefully at some point, such articles are going to properly frame the whole market with such a history, making peace with the fact its peak only lasted for so little time, and thus stop chasing a ghost, but instead focus not on the consumers that only boarded the train when it was cool and unboarded as soon as it wasn't anymore, but on those who are still here, feeded by the uninterrupted flow of mostly indie releases.

THIS is most likely what will remain for the next years, maintaining a much smaller but steady market, not the massively mass market that faded long ago.

[FrauBlucher]

I don't think he was framing it comparing it to the halcyon days of DVD. It seemed to me he was pointing out the downside of streaming services in tough economic times. As the streaming services cut back on content, which I believe that consumers are at the mercy of the streamers, folks will need to have another way of keeping films in their libraries if that is what they desire. His comparison with the music market was apt. But I got no impression that he was suggesting a boon in physical media as much as I would like to see that

[Drucker]

But it does seem the entire article is based in a tone of "obviously physical media is superior to streaming for a number of reasons. And hopefully the market follows accordingly" which, I don't think it will. And the arguments about superior quality have a habit of not mattering, especially when compared to convenience. Now if you'll excuse me I'll be spinning my Super Audio CDs and Half-Speed Mastered vinyl.

[FrauBlucher]

But it does seem the entire article is based in a tone of "obviously physical media is superior to streaming for a number of reasons. And hopefully the market follows accordingly"

Oh gosh, not my take away at all. I wish that was "tone".

[tenia]

But it does seem the entire article is based in a tone of "obviously physical media is superior to streaming for a number of reasons. And hopefully the market follows accordingly" which, I don't think it will.

That's how I read these articles : "People are at the mercy of streamers purging content, so a non-negligible part of the market is going to react to it by going back to physical video since its users don't face such issues", a shift that would be visible in the "resurrected" sales.

Which "resurrection" would it be if not for a surge in the market's value ? It certainly wouldn't be in terms of activity, since there's probably never been such a releases' pace before.

[Drucker]

But it does seem the entire article is based in a tone of "obviously physical media is superior to streaming for a number of reasons. And hopefully the market follows accordingly"

Oh gosh, not my take away at all. I wish that was "tone".

Here's an example of what I'm talking about though. Physical media music sales are rising, and the physical DVDs have content that is not available elsewhere. Therefore, DVD sales can follow the music industry trajectory, even as streaming rises.

Then there’s the lesson from the music industry, which was upended by streaming well before Hollywood. According to the Recording Industry Association of America’s 2023 midyear revenue report, while streaming accounts for 84 percent of music revenue, physical media is on the rise. Vinyl records are the main growth driver, but sales of CDs have also increased. “The new data also shows the lasting power of physical formats,” RIAA CEO Mitch Glazier commented, adding that “physical revenues reached their highest level since a full decade ago, topping $880 million so far this year.”

Vinyl records, with their unique sound and artists willing to add bonus tracks and content that isn’t available to stream, helped turn around music’s physical media business. It’s not unlike the behind-the-scenes access and director commentary that defined the DVD and Blu-ray era.

[tenia]

the music industry trajectory

Trajectory which is : being more and more dwarfed every year by streaming.
Which is, as I wrote, why I tend to be slightly frustrated by these articles : they tend to attract lots of discussions (like here) but they rarely go all the way through what they suggest.
In 2014, US Music Industry Revenues were split like : 32% for physical, 37% for digital downloads and 27% for streaming. In 2022, it's 11%, 3% and 84%. Physical music market's value in 2014 was $1.55bn, it's now $1.65bn. Meaning the music industry market is quite growing but the physical market isn't benefitting a bit from it.
That's... not a particularly promising trajectory.

[FrauBlucher]

But it does seem the entire article is based in a tone of "obviously physical media is superior to streaming for a number of reasons. And hopefully the market follows accordingly"

Oh gosh, not my take away at all. I wish that was "tone".

Here's an example of what I'm talking about though. Physical media music sales are rising, and the physical DVDs have content that is not available elsewhere. Therefore, DVD sales can follow the music industry trajectory, even as streaming rises.

Then there’s the lesson from the music industry, which was upended by streaming well before Hollywood. According to the Recording Industry Association of America’s 2023 midyear revenue report, while streaming accounts for 84 percent of music revenue, physical media is on the rise. Vinyl records are the main growth driver, but sales of CDs have also increased. “The new data also shows the lasting power of physical formats,” RIAA CEO Mitch Glazier commented, adding that “physical revenues reached their highest level since a full decade ago, topping $880 million so far this year.”

Vinyl records, with their unique sound and artists willing to add bonus tracks and content that isn’t available to stream, helped turn around music’s physical media business. It’s not unlike the behind-the-scenes access and director commentary that defined the DVD and Blu-ray era.

Right, but I don't see where PM is superior to streaming is suggested. Clearly the numbers stated show that physical media is dwarfed by the streaming. And will never catch up again. But I think going forward the physical media numbers need to strictly compare to themself and not streaming. It has become apples and oranges.

[Drucker]

Just to close the loop, I read the implication that the unavailable-elsewhere behind the scenes material on DVD represented a superior product, as is bonus tracks unavailable to stream.

[Finch]

That was a nothingburger of an article.

[Jonathan S]

Studios could pull Westworld and Good Burger from Max — but not from your bookshelf.

But disc rot can - and does.

[furbicide]

Personally, I’m astonished by the number of people I know (mostly older millennials) who don’t even own a DVD or Blu-ray player any more. One can reasonably assume that no matter how useless and expensive the streaming services get, they’re never going to get back into the DVD market.

[MichaelB]

I know loads of people who’ve never owned a Blu-ray player, including two out of three siblings. My mum doesn’t either, and so consequently she only has the vaguest idea of what I do for a living - but observes that her grandchildren aren’t visibly starving, so assumes that I can support them.

[hearthesilence]

Everyone in my family technically has had a player for the past 10-15 years due to someone owning a game console, but they NEVER play Blu-ray's or DVDs of movies - that's all either streamed online or locally from downloaded files on a Mac mini.

FWIW, they also never go to any repertory screenings, and those that go to the theater regularly (at most once a week, but more like one a month) only go see whatever's at their local mall.