Home Video (VHS, DVD, Blu-ray, 4k)

DVD, Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray sales appear to be on the up at HMV, after a positive first half of the year.

Some very welcome good news for fans of physical media, with the HMV chain reporting that sales of DVDs, Blu-rays and 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray discs are on the rise. Given the hammering that physical media had been taking over the last few years, this is the signs of a turnaround that had been hoped for and spectulated.

According to HMV’s managing director, Phil Halliday, “when streaming first came out I think a lot of people saw it as cheap and with huge breadth of choice, but I’m not sure people see it like that now … People are willing to pay for a physical copy of shows or films they know they will rewatch.”

Sales of what HMV describes as its ‘visual category’ are up by 5% in the first half of 2024 already. The driver for that growth is high definition disc formats, presumably 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray.

HMV’s story isn’t reflective elsewhere, on the flipside of that. Overall, the numbers suggest that physical media sales continue to decline, and that’s been the case year on year for well over a decade now. HMV, as physical media fans very well know, is about the only chain – along with its sister chain, Fopp – to stock a good range of catalogue DVDs, Blu-rays and 4K Ultra HD Blu-rays, with many stores backing away from even selling the biggest titles too.

Still, there’s an element of if you build it, they will come to all of this. What HMV has discovered is if you offer people a selection of physical media to choose from, they tend to be interested in it. And if the sales numbers being reported are anything to go, they’re willing to put their hands in their pockets too.

Here’s to more nice physical media sales numbers over the next year or two. We’ll keep you posted…