Continuing On From Patti's Thread..

[Lee]

Has anyone else noticed a decline in VHS and DVD sales over the past 12 months?

After posting in the thread Patti started i actually checked our stats quickly for a couple of places, MovieMountain, TLA and it would appear, at least on the face of it, now that surfers can access full length movies in pretty much any paysite these days, physical product sales have dropped.

Is this just isolated to us or have more of you noticed this?

By giving surfers exactly what they are demanding of us, are we, in effect, killing the profitability of the industry overall?

Just something to think about.

Regards,

Lee

[CorbinFisher_BD]

I don't think that dippin' DVD/VHS sales would equate to lost profits for the industry as a whole. If profits on VOD/PPV are goin' up, as well as profits for membership sites run by video companies and featurin' clips from their movies, then the money's bein made somewhere and for someone, if not the online retail sites.

And that's assuming the online retails sites are actually seeing dippin' sales on the whole and it's not somethin' unique to your stats alone.

I mean it'd be like suggesting DVD sales hurt the industry on the whole because the VHS-only retailers were seeing sagging #s.

I think there's plenty of room for everyone to do well.

[Lee]

I hear what you are saying Brian.

However, when i g back 36 months and see that 6% of our total yearly profits were made up of DVD/VHS sales compared to only 2-4% in the last 12 months, thats quite a big drop.

Actually, im going to look in to these stats a little more and see where that drop in sales has been added elsewhere.

Regards,

Lee

[basschick]

did i hear my name?

if we are able to make money selling paysites memberships instead of a physical video, we are not necessarily killing the profitability so much as moving the profit to a slightly different part of the industry.

i've never sold videos or dvds. i've been selling paysite and avs memberships since 1997 - before that, we got paid per click. to me, more content in the member area = better retention, which equals more money for someone.

[Lee]

Okay so i just pulled the last 3 years of sales figures from one of our companies and this is what i see..

2002 Breakdown:

Paysites - 79%
Dialers - 6%
Toys - 4%
VHS / DVD - 11%
VOD - 0%
Herbals - 0%

2003 Breakdown:

Paysites - 73%
Dialers - 4%
Toys - 2%
VHS / DVD - 6%
VOD - 10%
Herbals - 5%

2004 Breakdown:

Paysites - 70%
Dialers - 4%
Toys - 2%
VHS / DVD - 4%
VOD - 17%
Herbals - 3%

Those figures are based on around 50k in sales from the first financial 1/4 of the year.

It does look like product sales overall have dropped in the last 3 years and, its also interesting to note that VOD sales have risen almost as much as VHS/DVD sales have dropped year after year, the end result is around the same dollar amount, it just means the source of the revenues has changed.

Regards,

Lee

[gaystoryman]

Well has the traffic increased or decreased in that same time frame? not to mention the source of the traffic, as those would also have a bearing on the sales, wouldn't they? :coffee:

[Lee]

Well has the traffic increased or decreased in that same time frame? not to mention the source of the traffic, as those would also have a bearing on the sales, wouldn't they? :coffee:

Traffic has steadily increased by about 10-15% year over year for that companies sites.

As for where the traffic was actually going, i only started statistical analysis of that this year so i honestly wouldnt know LOL

Regards,

Lee

[gaystoryman]

Well certainly would be interesting to see how this plays out over the next year or so as well... I know a few on the other side of the pond and they are enjoying good DVD sales over last year, but I am wondering if the dynamics of the unsettled economic situation in the US is partialy to blame rather than over saturation?

[Lee]

Actually, you do bring up a good point about the economy, it could also be partially based on the political climate in the US presently to.

Hopefully this years figures will be of some help in seeing whether either of those factors play a role, if anything, id imagine the figures to be a lot lower all round if the economy or political climates had any effect on them.

Regards,

Lee

[gaystoryman]

Well I think, and only my opinion, that given the political climate and the way the news goes about portraying the industry down there, that it would be interesting to compare some of the stats. I mean, perhaps paysite sales are up or vod simply because of the fear of having it come to the home & become known? Not to mention that the disposable income available has shrunk as well.

[basschick]

yeah, but you can join a large video site and save the videos so you can watch the ones you like over and over.

[basschick]

not necessarily, but rebills rock, too.

i mean, i used to promote these three tv sites, and my average member spent 5.5 months in the site. that means i made $96.11 per join (minus ccbill fees) rather than $30 or $35. so did the site owners.

so sites that have killer retention can pay more for videos - or video production companies can have websites. the money is still being spent, it's just coming in differently.

[Jasun]

Well, I'll tell you..

I think that if your product is good enough, it will transcend the trend.

What I mean is this... If your stuff sucks, and people get to see it on the web, they're going to not bother buying it. But since we added our full-length movies to Fratmen, our DVD sales have actually gone UP.

And our members tell us that the reason that they buy the DVDs is that they want to have it on hard copy forever. Quality goes a long way, even in the adult industry.

[basschick]

:yeah:

what jasun says has also been the experience of sites i've worked witth. a lot of paysite members in really good exclusive paysites buy the dvd's even though they've already downloaded the videos

[basschick]

just a quick note - i'm inside a topbucks reality site right now, and if you want to see the full version of each video (which is presented in clips) you have to pay and see it VOD.

i'm not sure how happy the members are with this, how well it retains, or what percentage of the members actually pay to see the full video, but this is another potential option.