UK leads Europe in high definition adoption, apparently
According to a recent study by the Digital Entertainment Group Europe, based on statistics from GfK, Britain is leading Europe in the adoption of high definition disc technology.
The volume of next generation DVDs being sold across Europe increased 85 fold between 2006 and 2007, and is expected to rise exponentially into 2008. 34% of those sales are coming from the UK.
Not surprisingly, with HD disc sales increasing, so did the number of hardware players — up from 11,100 units sold in January 2007 to 124,000 by December 2007.
Yves Caillaud, senior vice president international, Warner Home Video, speaking for and on behalf of DEG Europe, said: "In 2007, we saw over 2.5 million units of high definition DVD's sold within Europe. To put this in context, when compared to the transfer from VHS to DVD in 1998, only 1,480,000 DVDs were sold in the first year. This clearly demonstrates the rapid consumer adoption of HD technologies."
"The increase in sales of HD players shows a strong move in the right direction. Factors that might be holding consumers back from full adoption include confusion over the formats available, a lack of education and understanding of the benefits of next generation technologies and the fact that SD players are the cheapest they have ever been, averaging at just £37 a player."
Hopefully the format war is no longer an issue, which leaves the task of consumer awareness combined with pushing down HD equipment prices.
Post a comment
Required fields marked by *