It wasn't all gloom and doom for the Home Video industry last year. According to a note to clients from Morgan Stanley analyst Benjamin Swinburne, sales of movies on Blu-ray Discs increased 11 percent, with Blu-ray representing 27 percent of the top titles of the year. The Morgan Stanley note observed that Blu-ray sales for the first time exceeded $2 billion in revenue. "We see growth in high margin Blu-ray sales as a net positive for the industry, and continue to look for Blu-ray and digital distribution to help offset declines in physical DVD sales," Swinburne wrote, while noting that overall DVD declines will exceed Blu-ray gains. "We believe that consumers will continue to migrate to rental transactions (vs. sellthrough), due to the economy, convenience of kiosk and subscription channels, and an overall maturation of physical DVDs," he added.

01/02/2012