According to the latest data released by the French video publishers association, SEVN, 2008 DVD sales revenues fell 7.5% to €1.38bn. Sales volumes dropped 5.5%. Over the past four years, the DVD market lost €600m, nearly a third of its value.

SEVN notes that the fall in value would have exceeded 10% if it was not for the encouraging early results from Blu-ray sales, which grew four-fold during 2008, mirroring the US growth rate.

Around 1,000 Blu-ray titles are already available in France, the BD version accounting for 15% of some titles’ total DVD sales, or even bigger –18.5% for Warner’s Iron Man, 17.7% for Paramount’s Cloverfield and 16.8% for Fox’s Hitman.

Internet download rental and sell-through services accounted for less than 4% of total video revenues in 2008, bringing in over €50m last year, up from €30m in 2007.

In view of the sharp fall of the domestic DVD market, SEVN is urging the French Parliament to vote an anti-piracy law, already adopted by the French Senat, which provides for gradual penalty against the illegal downloading of copyrighted material (see story).

The video publishers' association is also calling for reform of the so-called chronologie des médias which regulates the window between theatrical exhibition and the video release of films. It wants to see a shortening of this window from the current six months in most cases.

Story filed 29.01.09