Consumer expenditures on physical media continued to decline steadily in France, according to the latest figures from the Centre national de la cinématographie (CNC), the domestic audiovisual market observatory.

Consumer spending on DVD and Blu-ray discs in France tumbled 15.5% to €604.92m over the first nine months of this year compared to the same period in 2012. This sharp fall is attributed to a 18.2% decrease in DVD sales (€468.63m), but also a drop of 5% in Blu-ray disc sales (€136.3m).

Blu-ray accounted for 22.5% of total physical media spending in the January-to-September 2013 period compared to 20% during the first three quarters of last year.

In terms of volumes, DVD and Blu-ray discs combined fell 13.8% to 64.69 units - 55.85m DVDs (-15.4%) and 8.84m BDs (-2.2%). Over the past 12 months, the number of discs sold dropped by 10.4% to 109.58m units.

While the average price of a new DVD title remained stable (-0.6%) at €17.12, catalogue titles actually increased 3.1% to €8.26. Sales of €17-to-€20 DVDs accounted for 22.2% of total revenue compared to 26.1% over the first nine months of 2012. Volume-wise, €3-to-€8 DVDs represented 36.2% of unit sold this year, compared to 40.6% over the same period in 2012.

As for Blu-ray discs, the average price of a new title reached €22.85, up 1.2% over the same period last year. The €10-to-€13 BD range accounted for 28% of total BD sales. Some 30.8% of total spending is generated by €20-to-€25 BD discs.

French home video is dominated by cinema titles that generated €374.8m - 62% of total revenue. But this is a 18.9% drop over the previous year. The market share of French films on DVD fell to 21.6% of total spending in the first three quarters of 2013 compared to the same period last year. Some 7.15m DVDs and BDs of French films were sold this year, a sharp fall of 28.9% over the previous year. French titles represent only 10.8% of total spending on Blu-ray discs.

American films fared better, increasing the market share of discs sold in France from 60% in 2012 to 65% this year. However, overall sales fell 12.9%, for a total of 19.8 million discs and a total euro;241.8 in sales. Of note, American films accounted for 72.9% of Blu-ray disc revenues.

Story filed 30.10.13