Earlier today, the Digital Entertainment Group, a Los Angeles-based, industry funded nonprofit corporation that advocates and promotes the many consumer benefits associated with various entertainment products, including both physical and digital media on a variety of platforms, announced that Blu-ray spending is up more than 10% in the first half of 2011.
According to the report issued by the DEG, in the second quarter Blu-ray improved 16% over 2010 (inclusive of BD set-tops, PS3s and HTiBs), bringing total Blu-ray household penetration in the U.S. to more than 31.6 million. This performance, the DEG concludes, makes Blu-ray one of the fastest growing new technologies in the home entertainment industry.
Despite the more than 10% increase in Blu-ray spending, however, overall consumer spending on home entertainment is down 5%.
However, the DEG clarifies that
last year's sales are highly skewed because of the unprecedented success of James Cameron's Avatar, which is now Hollywood's all-time box-office hit.
Finally, the DEG are very optimistic about the second half of the year, when such blockbusters as
Transformers: Dark of the Moon 3D,
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2,
The Hangover Part II,
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides 3D, and
Fast Five will come to home entertainment.