DVDs Surpass VHS in Rentals

The Video Software Dealers Association says DVD is rental king for the first time:

DVD rentals generated more revenue than VHS rentals last week, announced the Video Software Dealers Association (VSDA). For the week ending March 16, 2003, DVD rentals generated $80 million in revenue, and VHS rentals yielded $78 million, according to VSDA VidTrac. This is the first week ever that DVD rental revenues have exceeded VHS rental revenues, and occurred six years to the month after the launch of the DVD format in the U.S.

"Consumers rejoice in the quality, convenience, and value-added features of DVDs, and are clearly attracted to DVD as an item both to purchase and to rent," said Bo Andersen, President of VSDA. "Given the choice to buy or to rent DVDs, the American public has chosen both."

In 2002, VSDA VidTrac reported that DVD rental revenue accounted for 35% of the total video rental market. DVD sales revenues first exceeded VHS sales revenues in 2001, according to Adams Media Research.

According to VSDA VidTrac, in terms of number of units rented ("turns"), VHS remains the preferred format, with a 54% share of turns last week. Andersen noted, however, that the percentage of video turns that are DVD turns has been steadily increasing and would soon overtake VHS as well.

Six years is pretty quick for that kind of overhaul - DVDs are simply an excellent value. Now if we could only make copies of them....

Article Author: Eric Olsen

Career media professional Eric Olsen is honored to be the founder and former publisher of Blogcritics.org, and former publisher of Technorati.com, which both rule. He is now editor, co-founder, and CEO of The Morton Report.

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