Environmentally-friendly disc solution provider EcoDisc has revealed the results of its social media poll that point to the public’s continued infatuation CDs and DVDs, despite the growing popularity of download as a means to receive content. While the company's social media survey highlighted convenience as the great benefit of download, almost 50% said they still preferred to receive everything on disc rather than download.

Industry estimates put the global demand for DVDs at around eight billion discs in 2010, which is gradually declining compared to previous years, but at a slower rate than originally predicted.

"It's a combination of a fairly basic psychological connection with the physical object as well as the flexibility and convenience of an optical disc," said Ray Wheeler, sales and marketing director for EcoDisc. "Newspapers and magazines report a 20% increase in sales when they put a DVD on the front cover, while putting a link to a download doesn't have anything like the same effect. It's that sense of getting something for your money."

Indeed, 67% of respondents admitted they had purchased a newspaper or magazine just because it had a free covermount disc on the cover.

"The biggest mobile phone manufacturers will distribute 100 million discs this year alone as a means to share instructions and drivers for their devices,” adds Wheeler. “Those manufacturers would probably prefer to do everything by download but the challenge is how to get the new customer to your website to get those downloads. A disc bridges that gap between the physical and the online and makes sure customers are using the most up-to-date software."

From Swiss-based EcoDisc Technology, developer of the format, the challenge created by the continued dominance of the disc format is environmental sustainability. “While a third of survey respondents admitted to having ten or more discs lying around in desk drawers, 85% were unaware that DVDs use polycarbonate, an oil-based derivative that is in short supply, and a similar number were unaware that toxic resins are used in bonding the two layers of the disc. Seven out of ten did not know that standard discs cannot be recycled,” said Wheeler

The survey was conducted in June using Survey Monkey with distribution via Twitter and with 128 people responding.

Story filed 19.07.10