First Decline in DVD Player Revenues Projected Jun 22, 2005

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Global DVD player revenues will fall for the first time ever this year, according to research from the Strategy Analytics (Boston, MA, U.S.). Retail revenues in 2005 will fall by 1 percent to U.S. $19.8 billion after peaking at $20.1 billion in 2004. Higher value DVD recorders are beginning to replace players, but this trend will not prevent a continued fall in overall revenues, the research firm reports.

"The global transition from play-only DVD players to DVD Recorders is well under way," says Peter King, director of the Strategy Analytics Connected Home service. "High prices and product complexity have held back demand for DVD Recorders, but these factors are now diminishing."

Worldwide sales of DVD recorders rose to 8.9 million units in 2004, generating $4.8 billion in retail revenues. According to Strategy Analytics, DVD recorder sales will continue to grow rapidly, overtaking play-only devices in 2008 and reaching annual sales of 90.9 million units in 2010. The U.S. market is trailing both Europe and Japan in adoption of DVD recorders, in part reflecting faster US adoption of set-top box DVRs.

DVD recorders that are integrated with a hard-disk drive dominate the Japanese market, enabling time shifting as well as television program archiving in one device. This trend is expected to spread to other regions, the research firm reports.

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