Sales of movies on DVD declined in 2009

Niko reindeer animation was biggest hit

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Sales of recordings on DVD declined in Finland in 2009, with the biggest reason given for the falling demand being downloads from the Net.
      In terms of volume, the drop was around 12%, and measured in euros approximately 16% relative to 2008.
      Turnover in the DVD rentals branch was also off by some 5% year-on-year.
      Sales of Blu-Ray recordings did increase by a healthy 42% in the same period, but the format's significance in the market is still relatively small. DVDs account for 93% of the overall market.
     
The latest figures come from the Finnish Film Distributors' Association (SEL), the local trade body for theatrical film distributors as well as distributors for home video, which registers the wholesale sales of recordings by distributors to retail outlets.
      Apparently a system that would measure for the first time actual sales and consumption is still in the pipeline within SEL.
      According to the wholesale figures for 2009, some 11 million copies of DVDs of films and TV-series were sold in Finland last year, down from the high of 12.5 million reached in 2008.
     
Entertainment and children's movies, often of the serial variety (for instance Ice Age 3, the latest Harry Potter offering, or Madagascar 2) dominated the top placings, with the biggest sales of all - 133,000 copies - going to the Finnish animated feature Niko: Lentäjän Poika ("Niko & The Way to the Stars"), which had already enjoyed massive box office success in this country and had picked up a clutch of national and international awards and nominations.
      Films that had already had a general cinema release dominated the overall picture - only one in three DVDs is a compilation of a TV-series or a movie that has gone "straight to DVD".
     
The DVD business is predominantly in the hands of the big distributors and media houses.
      The largest distributor in the Finnish market was FS Film (part of the BonnierGroup), with 23%, followed by Nordisk Film (Egmont) with 11%, and by Walt Disney with 10%.
     


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Animation Niko & The Way to the Stars collects Jussi Award for Best Picture of 2008 (2.2.2009)

Links:
  Niko & The Way to the Stars on IMDb

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