Preliminary 2008 Blu-ray sales in Europe included 431,000 stand-a...
Preliminary 2008 Blu-ray sales in Europe included 431,000 stand-alone players and 8 million discs, the European Blu-ray Disc Association told Consumer Electronics Daily. Final figures will be available this month. The player tally was 13 times as high as…
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2007’s, and excludes PS3, Norway and business-to-business sales, the association said, citing sell-through figures from research firm GfK. PS3 sales weren’t immediately available. The 8 million Blu- ray movie sales were three times as high as in 2007. It included 3.7 million discs sold in the U.K., where nearly half the total was sold in December -- four times as high as a year earlier. France accounted for 1.7 million disc sales, five times as many as in 2007 -- and 47 percent sold in December. About 1.6 million discs were sold in Germany last year. Comparable figures from 2007 weren’t available. European markets with lower Blu-ray sales included Italy, Spain, and the Benelux and Nordic regions. The European numbers compare with about 3 million stand-alone Blu-ray players sold in the U.S. in 2008, and about 7.7 million PS3 consoles. U.S. sell-through of Blu-ray discs was 24 million in 2008, according to the U.S. BDA (CED Jan 12 p8). Shipments to retailers North America last year was 63 million, the Digital Entertainment Group reported (CED Jan 9 p15).