Competition from online retailers, digital services, forcing Blu-ray and DVD price cuts to happen earlier in the U.K.
Image/Photo Credit: Compact Discs by Petr Kratochvil
Retailers in the U.K. are cutting prices for Blu-ray and DVD titles faster, and in greater amount according to new data from Ampere Analysis.
Heavy competition among retailers, as well as pressure from digital services such as Netflix and Amazon Instant Video, have forced prices to drop quicker than ever before.
According to the data from Ampere, 50% of price changes are directly attributed to competitors such as Amazon Instant Video.
Ampere also noted that prices drops are starting just four weeks after the initial release date for the title, citing a variety of reasons, from the popularity of streaming services to supermarkets engaged in loss leading practices, for the pricing changes.
Another price drops occur about nine weeks after release , with the price cut coming from both retailers and studios. After 14 to 15 weeks, another price drop occurs when new releases are re-categorised as "recent releases".
And six months after release, titles are further re-categorised as "catalogue" titles, leading to the final price cut.
In Ampere's research, only the studios Sony and Disney were found to not engage in this kind of massive price cutting. Ampere says not participating in these price cuts puts these studios at a disadvantage, but the overall price cutting strategy is negatively impacting all studios in terms of product life cycle management as well as reducing the perceived value of the physical media products.
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