Consumers spent $5.65B renting DVDs and Blu-ray discs in 2011, Rentrak says this morning citing data from its Home Video Essentials tracking service. That’s down 3.4% from 2010. But consumer defections from disc rentals appear to be accelerating. In the last three months of the year, rentals were -21.3% from the same period in 2010, as business at kiosks — including Redbox, which charges $1.20 a night — grew by 28%. “People have many choices when it comes to renting videos, for both digital and physical media, so it’s interesting to see DVD and Blu-ray Disc rentals are still the number one choice for consumers,” said David Paiko, Vice President of Home Entertainment at Rentrak. The company says that Summit’s Red was the most rented title on DVD and Blu-ray at bricks-and-mortar stores, but it didn’t provide sales data.


How can the say that rentals are down if most blockbusters closed and redbox charges are considerably less than what brick and mortar stores used to charge
Gee, fewer stores, and the kiosks don’t chanrge much? Golly, WHY would thay say that leads to less revenue….?
This is confusing. Are they saying that rental business overall has shrunk yet RedBox is still zooming? Cause where I live, there are no more brick and mortar rental joints. There were 6 within five miles now there’s none. But the place is overwhelmed by RedBox machines. The nearby main intersection has 3 of the 4 corners having a RedBox outside the gas stations and the drug store. They’re more popular than newspaper machines.
The clock is ticking on DVD and Blu-ray. Remember vinyl, 8-tracks, cassettes? Domestically, DVD and Blu-ray is destined for archival and rural (limited broadband) use only.
I work in the Internet industry. I was at one of the first streaming companies in the world back in 1999. I have a blazing-fast Internet connection. Streaming still sucks. Buffering. Drops in resolution. Freezing frames. It’s awful. Sure, it has improved over the years and it’s fine for most of the sheeple who enjoy watching the equivalent of VHS on their HDTV. Personally, I’ll stick with Blu-ray. Streaming won’t be capable of maintaining acceptable image-quality for cinefiles for another 5 to 10 years.
My local Blockbuster shuttered and I have to drive 15 miles to another one, so I don’t go very often. My local Blockbuster kiosk doesn’t have a good selection and not much Blu-Ray. It’s getting tougher and tougher to see the movies I want to see anymore.
Rentals are down? No kidding.