Q4 Is Ray of Light for Blu-Ray

Holiday sales of Blu-ray Disc players were strong enough to sustain industry hopes that the struggling format may be able to pull in money for the studios. As of Dec. 21, 22 million Blu-ray units had sold in comparison to 5.3 million in 2007, according to Adams Media Research.  Fourth-quarter player sales were so good that the research firm raised its estimate of Blu-ray households in the U.S. from 2.9 million to 3.1 million by year's end. In an effort to speed up the transition from DVD to Blu-Ray, many retailers slashed the prices of players to as low as $200 during the holiday shopping season. Still, Blu-ray disc sales only account for roughly 5% of the overall home entertainment market last year. This is welcome news to the industry as DVD sales continue to slow, lagging a possible 5-6% behind 2007 levels.