If you've been a long-time reader of What Hi-Fi? you will know that we're fond of physical media. Despite near-constant headlines of declining sales and retailers ceasing sales in bricks-and-mortar stores, there is finally some good news coming from one of Britain's largest entertainment retailers.
HMV has reported that DVD and Blu-ray sales are on the rise, despite a decline in previous years due to the popularity of streaming services like Disney Plus, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. ITV reports that the managing director of HMV, Phil Halliday, has made promising statements regarding the business, with the "physical visual" side being a particular highlight.
Halliday attributes collectors as a key demographic for increased Blu-ray sales, alongside growing frustrations with streaming services such as rising subscription prices and confusion as to what content is available on certain streaming platforms. This has reportedly driven people back to buying physical discs to avoid these streaming pitfalls.
"It’s been really positive to see the physical products in visual back in growth – 4K and Blu-ray have been doing particularly well," says Halliday, which is music to our ears. He went on to say "It’s a bit like people buying music physically, in that we are getting a lot of people wanting to collect certain titles. Releases have picked up as well, and we have some really good titles like Challengers coming out at the moment [...] people are willing to pay for a physical copy of shows or films they know they will rewatch."
Seeing 4K Blu-ray doing well is especially important to us, especially as just a year ago we had fears that the format might be dying out. We still always prefer the superior picture and sound quality that 4K Blu-ray provides over streaming, and the security of always having our favourite content on hand without worrying about licenses expiring or subscription prices rising.
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