Blockbuster: DVD to Blu-ray shift slower than VHS to DVD

by Jordan Yerman | September 24, 2008 at 07:07 am

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The migration from DVD to Blu-ray isn't as quick as Blockbuster seemed to think it would be.

According to a report by Home Media magazine, Thomas Casey, CFO of Blockbuster said at a recent investor conference in New York that he doesn’t think Blu-ray’s replacement of DVD is “going to be nearly like DVD replacing VHS”.

Although he didn’t give any timeframe for consumer adoption of the HD format, he hinted that the wholesale and retail prices of Blu-ray films could be one of the problems slowing consumer uptake.

There's a more obvious reason, actually: other hardware. With VHS, one only had to replace the video player. With Blu-ray, one also needs a new television- which costs thousands of dollars- to enjoy any benefit from the new medium. Since the US is in a recession at the moment, how many used-car-expensive TVs does Blockbuster think we'll be buying?

Also, DVD offered functional benefits: chapters, special features, subtitles, voiceover tracks, and so forth. Blu-ray cannot claim those leaps forward- image inhancement is great, but fewer people will rush out and drop $4000 on a new television and video player in order to upgrade.

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