Dvd Maintains Upward Climb

DVD continued its reign as the sexiest consumer entertainment product in 2003.

Heightened interest in the hot format propelled total consumer spending on DVD titles in 2003 to $22.5 billion, compared with $9.2 billion spent at the theatrical box office, according to a Jan. 8 announcement by Los Angeles-based Digital Entertainment Group (DEG) at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The DEG reports that DVD accounted for 72% of all home video transactions last year, an increase of 18.2% over 2002 transactions. DVD sales increased 33% over 2002 figures to reach a total of $11.6 billion. Further, DVD rental revenue totaled $4.5 billion in 2003, a 55% increase over 2002.

A record 1 billion DVD software units were shipped in 2003, the DEG says, bringing the total number of units shipped since the format's launch in 1997 to 2.4 billion discs. In fourth-quarter 2003 alone, 381 million DVD units shipped to retailers. Approximately 29,000 individual DVD titles are now available.

"One of the things that is surprising is that we shipped 1 billion in the first six years and 1 billion in 2003," says Amy Jo Donner, executive director of the DEG. "We did in 2003 what we had done in all of the previous years combined. There is clearly a sweet spot for the marketing of the products. There is a depth and variety of players to appeal to all customers. There is a large amount of titles at different price points across all the genres that have fabulous features."

By the end of 2003, DVD players were in more than half of U.S. homes, the DEG says. The organization predicts that two-thirds of U.S. homes will have a player by the end of this year and that an additional 30 million players will be sold.

About 34 million DVD players were sold to consumers in 2003, according to figures compiled by the DEG and based on data from the Consumer Electronics Assn. This is a 34% increase over 2002's DVD player sales.

Additionally, 17 million DVD players were sold in fourth-quarter 2003, which is a 29% increase over fourth-quarter 2002's sales figure.

The DEG reports that more than 90 million DVD players have been sold since 1997 and that about 37% of DVD owners have more than one player.

One of the most notable growth areas of 2003 was the music DVD category. Sales of music DVD titles increased 102% in 2003 to reach 17.2 million units, according to Nielsen SoundScan. More than 4,000 music DVD titles are now available.

A total of 28 DVD titles sold in excess of 5 million units in 2003. Buena Vista Home Entertainment saw nine of its titles move more than 5 million units, including the year's top-seller, "Finding Nemo," as well as "Chicago," "The Lion King: Special Edition" and "Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl." Universal Studios Home Video had the next-highest number of 5 million-plus sellers. These titles include "2 Fast 2 Furious," "8 Mile," "Scarface" and "Seabiscuit." DreamWorks Home Entertainment and Warner Home Video each had three titles sell more than 5 million units last year.

Universal had the top DVD rental title in 2003 with "The Bourne Identity," according to the DEG. DreamWorks and Buena Vista each had three top 10 year-end rental titles. DreamWorks' "Catch Me If You Can" was No. 2, followed by "Old School" (3) and "The Ring" (7). Buena Vista's titles were "Bringing Down the House" at No. 4, "Signs" (5) and "Sweet Home Alabama" (9).