Blu-ray enjoys festive sales boost

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Blu-ray looks to be finally making a dent in the UK home entertainment market after enjoying a successful Christmas - nearly a year since the Sony-backed format managed to knock out Toshiba's rival HD DVD.

Sales of the high definition optical format were 400 per cent higher last month than they were in the same period the year before, according to figures released by the British Video Association.

Some 1.5 million Blu-ray discs were sold in December, with 3.7 million discs sold during 2008. The Blu-ray charge was led by Batman: The Dark Knight title, which sold 281,000 copies on Blu-ray in its first three weeks of release.

This brings a note of cheer to at least one section of the retail industry, which suffered a major sales dip over the festive period on a recession-hit high street.

Blu-ray has been boosted over the holiday season by being built into Sony's PlayStation 3 games console and the increasing availability of lower cost dedicated decks, such as the Bush BD-01, available from Argos for less than £100.

According to the entertainment industry analysts ScreenDigest, Blu-ray sales could hit 17 million in the UK in 2009. The format still has a mountain to climb against DVD though with 253 million discs sold in December alone. This is in addition to the rise of online video sites offering HD content such as YouTube and Hulu.

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