Some 4.7 billion pre-recorded optical video discs will ship...

Some 4.7 billion pre-recorded optical video discs will ship next year, representing a 3 percent decline from 2012, according to Digital Tech Consulting. Despite competition from streaming services, pay-per-view and DVRs, however, the optical disc business, while declining, will still be “relevant for some years to come,” Myra Moore, DTC president, told us. “Even with increased competition from [over the top] OTT content and TV Everywhere initiatives, [Blu-ray disc] shipments are expected to show significant growth,” experiencing a 26 percent compounded annual growth rate from 2012-2017, she said. Although there’s “significant saturation” for video optical disc playback devices in mature global markets, “the installed base in other parts of the world is still building,” Moore said. While the disc business will continue to shrink, “it’s not reasonable to expect it to disappear in the near future,” she said. Standard DVD shipments will continue to comprise a smaller share of the video disc market as Blu-ray discs gain share, DTC said, with DVD share expected to shrink from 79 percent of global shipments in 2013 to 46 percent in 2017. The crossover point for global Blu-ray shipments to pass DVD shipments will occur in mid-2016 at roughly 2.25 billion unit shipments, according to DTC data. Worldwide Blu-ray shipments are projected to grow from 770 million this year to 2.5 billion in 2017, DTC said. DVD shipments, meanwhile, will fall from 4.1 billion units this year to 2.1 billion in 2017, it said. Meanwhile, paid OTT content, on a title basis, will grow from 1.3 billion titles in 2012 to 5.5 billion titles in 2017, DTC said.