There is nothing more nostalgic than the feeling of letting your finger browse across the thousands of DVD cases you have amassed, selecting one, cracking open the bendy plastic and sliding that shiny disc into your Blue-ray player (if you were rich and could afford that optimum viewing experience). Then, BOOM, the excitement of ‘YOU WOULDN’T STEAL A CAR?’, and the plethora of film trailers you were forced to skip through before getting to that glorious DVD selection menu.
Somehow navigating your way through the often incredibly artistic and whacky layout, you were then able to select ‘play’, sit back, and let the movie magic begin. The good old days.
After the film, you were able to see deleted scenes (remember those?), exclusive behind the scenes content and on some menus, you were even able to play games (see Amelia Tait’s fascinating piece in The Guardian: Why is a whole new generation obsessed with DVD menus? ).
The question I want to ask is, is there something unique about the DVD viewing experience that streaming services like Netflix just can’t rival? In other words, are DVD’s going to make a comeback?
It happened with vinyl in the music industry after all (though the same can’t yet be said for the currently unfashionable CD).
Well, after a bit of digging, I was surprised to find that DVD sales aren’t quite as non-existent as I thought. According to the British Association for Screen Entertainment (BASE), physical sales (DVD, Blue-ray, 4K UHD, and Boxset) delivered £209 million to the UK home entertainment market in 2022. While this doesn’t even come anywhere close to the £3.8 billion valuation of the streaming video-on-demand market (Netflix, Amazon Prime etc.), £209 million isn’t exactly nothing; I would love that in my student bank account.
Fact is, business is competitive, and streaming subscription rates are reportedly slowing. While many are adapting, providing ad-tiers and cheaper subscriptions, don’t think Netflix or Amazon Prime are safe. Things change.
Who knows, maybe you’ll soon be browsing your DVD shelf again? That relies on you still having one, of course, but it’s an exciting possibility nevertheless.