Blu-ray Wallops HD DVD In Disc Sales
The Sony-backed format crushes its rival despite low-cost HD DVD players.
By Swanni
That's according to an article by Home Media Magazine.
The publication reports that Blu-ray accounted for 72.6 percent of all high-def discs sold during Thanksgiving week, compared to 27.4 for HD DVD. (The figures are based on data from Nielsen VideoScan.)
Blu-ray, which is led by Sony, has enjoyed a 2-1 sales advantage over HD DVD for months. However, retailers recently began selling Toshiba HD DVD players for under $200 -- roughly $200 less than the lowest-priced Blu-ray player.
In pre-Black Friday sales (weekend of Nov. 16-18), some stores were even selling the Toshiba HD-A2 for just $98.
The introduction of the low-cost HD DVD player has led some analysts to speculate that the Toshiba-backed format would finally overcome Blu-ray's advantage. However, during Thanksgiving week, Blu-ray's sales lead actually expanded to roughly 2.5-1.
Of course, HD DVD supporters are likely to say that disc sales will pick up in the next few weeks after people have had a chance to install their new players.
Blu-ray and HD DVD are rival formats competing for the new high-def disc audience.
In related news, Home Media reports that consumers spent $176 million on DVD rentals (standard-def and high-def) during Thanksgiving week, which is a 7.6 percent increase from the previous week.
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