6 April 2008 marks the tenth anniversary of DVD’s launch in the UK. On this date in 1998, reminds the British Viideo Association, Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment (now known as Sony Pictures Home Entertainment) was the first studio to release their films onto the new DVD format, with Jerry Maguire, Jumanji, A Few Good Men and Fly Away Home.

Combined sales of those titles in 1998 amounted to just 6,385. By the end of 1998, the new format had already sold 200,000 discs. This rose rapidly to 4 million the following year.

Now 10 years on, with DVD the established platform, BVA figures reveal a total of 248 million DVDs sold in 2007. Furthermore, the latest data from the association reveals that so far in 2008, an additional 60.7 million DVDs have been bought by the British public.

Ten years ago, consumers were keen to see how DVD would develop compared with VHS. In fact, it entered the Guinness Book of Records as the fastest growing consumer electronics product ever.

Consumers now have even more choice in how they view films, TV and other video genres at home with the rise in popularity of high-definition discs, which sold over a million units by the end of last year. In 2008 alone sales have already exceeded 550,000 copies.

Additionally, the value of the DVD market is now worth more than twice as much as the peak of £893 million achieved by VHS in 1998.

Lavinia Carey, Director General of the British Video Association says: "As we celebrate ten years of DVD, we are delighted to see that the format is continuing to go from strength to strength, while developing new channels to deliver content to our audiences. Our figures demonstrate that DVD is showing resilience even in a difficult economic market, with sales of high-definition discs now exceeding the 1.5 million unit mark and standard definition experiencing a 9.3% increase in volume growth last year, whilst Q1 2008 is already up by 3.3%."

The continued popularity of DVD for home entertainment is clearly illustrated by the charting of Casino Royale as the tenth highest selling DVD of the last decade, a film which was only released in early 2007 and has almost exceeded sales of 3 million units. The film also charted as the highest selling Blu-ray title in the last year.

"We have seen the new high-definition disc format adding value to the market," continues Carey, "we expect to see the market for DVD and Blu-ray continue to grow in value and volume, as the public demonstrate its commitment to pre-recorded discs as the preferred choice of home entertainment."

The BVA forecasts that despite the array of digital opportunities, physical discs will dominate the market for the foreseeable future.

Story filed 14.04.08