Despite the large growth of Blu-ray on the whole over the past two years, a few studios have scaled back on their TV series releases in Blu-ray, rolling back to DVD-only releases.
A few of the series in question are Nip/Tuck, Rescue Me and Damages, popular on TV but apparently not as popular on BD.
Overall, TV series on Blu-ray sell only 5 percent of the copies they do on DVD, compared to 15-25 percent for most new releases in both formats.
The discrepancy in sales can mainly be attributed to the larger pricing differences, which can be over $10 for most releases. For example, the price difference of a DVD and Blu-ray of a new release (such as Harry Potter 6) can be under $5 while most, if not all TV series have a difference of over $10, with some as high as $20 for premium cable channel programming.
“The significant amount of content and multiple discs make the financial model challenging for many TV series on Blu-ray and is a significant reason for the methodical approach studios are taking to release product,” added Rosemary Markson, VP of TV marketing for Warner Home Video, via VB. “Unfortunately, Nip/Tuck Blu-ray sales were insufficient to continue releasing in the format.”
Some TV shows outperform however, but not enough for the entire industry to remain in Blu-ray at this point.
“Over half of our Mad Men copies sold on Blu-ray,” noted David Barker, VP of e-commerce marketing at DeepDiscount.com. “But there’s The Office, with a $69.99 SRP Blu-ray and $59.99 SRP DVD, where just under 5% of copies sold in high-def.”
Result for: discrepancy
Microsoft Canada has announced price drops across the line for all of its Xbox 360 models and it seems Canadian buyers will finally see prices more equivalent to their southern neighbors in the US.
The Xbox 360 Pro pack will drop to $349 CAD and the Elite Pack will drop to $449 CAD. The base-level Arcade model will see the smallest cut, from $299 CAD to $279 CAD.
Its US counterparts reached their current pricing model in late August 2007, and so far Canadian gamers have been forced to pay a large premium for the consoles, higher than even the discrepancy in the US and Canadian dollar which is now less than a couple cents per dollar.
