DVD and beyond - Consumers keep packaging in packaged media, says study

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Consumers keep packaging in packaged media, says study

Rather than discarding DVD and video game packaging, consumers overwhelmingly store their DVDs and video games in their original cases according to a joint study commissioned by the Content Delivery and Storage Association (CDSA) and the Entertainment Merchants Association (EMA) and conducted by The NPD Group.

The study also found that when consumers no longer want to keep a particular DVD or video game title, they rarely throw it away or recycle it, preferring instead to give it away or sell or trade it.

Some 89% of DVD owners and 88% of video game owners store their DVDs and video games in their original cases. Only 5% of DVD owners and 8% of video game owners store their discs in plastic sleeves, but save the original cases. Only 6% of DVD owners and 5% of video game owners said they throw away or recycle the cases.

When they no longer want to own a title, 45% of DVD owners give the title to someone else, as will 24% of game owners. Some 44% of video game owners will trade it in or sell it; the trade/sell rate is 27% for DVD owners. 20% of DVD owners and 17% of game owners store the discs. Only 2% of DVD owners and 4% of video game owners recycle or throw the product away.

“The issue of DVD cases being considered as packaging versus as a part of the product has been questioned by some in the industry and without consumer research we could not verify our beliefs that consumers consider the DVD case as part of the product,” commented Charles Van Horn, President of CDSA. “When almost 90% of DVD consumers state that they store their DVDs in the original case, they have verified that they consider the case a valuable part of the DVD product.”

Other findings in the study included:

- The average DVD household has 114 DVDs in its collection.
- The average video game collection has 48 titles.
- In the average DVD and video game households there is unwrapped product:
- 26% of the surveyed DVD households own some unopened DVDs.
- 11% of the surveyed video game households own some unopened games.

The NPD Group surveyed a pre-identified sample of DVD and video game purchasers who had purchased a DVD or video game in the past 6 months. The report is based on 557 qualified DVD respondents and 562 video game respondents.