Media Coverage 2003

globeandmail.com, Tuesday, April 08, 2003
DVDs a hit in Canada, especially among Gen Y

KEITH DAMSELL
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
BREAKING NEWS

When it comes to home entertainment, Ryan Spratt, a 16-year-old from Toronto, opts for the sharp digital picture and sound of a DVD over a muddied videotape every time.

"There's better quality, better sound," the Grade 11 student said. "It's like a CD player. Sometimes you want to skip over certain songs or certain parts of a movie. You can do that with a DVD player."

The Spratt family owns half a dozen films on DVD, including Ryan's favourite, the 1999 dark comedy American Beauty.

In only five years, the DVD has transformed the way Canadians consume entertainment.

Almost half - 48 per cent - of all Canadian households have at least one DVD player, according to a study by Toronto's Solutions Research Group Consultants Inc. that was released Tuesday. That's up from only 1 per cent in 1998. In comparison, it took the personal computer, the CD player and the VCR about 12 years each to reach comparable penetration levels.

Kaan Yigit, a partner at SRG and the director of the study, said the so-called Generation Y - Canadians between the ages of 12 and 24 - and their embrace of all things interactive have propelled DVD sales. In homes with a DVD player, DVD viewing makes up less than 20 per cent of total TV viewing. In contrast, Generation Y spends more than 30 per cent of its TV time playing a DVD.

"There's almost a linear relationship between interactivity and age. The younger you are, the more likely you are to spend time with interactive media," Mr. Yigit said.

"If you look at the way younger generations are collecting DVDs and the rate at which they are buying them, they're doing that primarily because it gives them this sort of deep content that they are able to go in and consume any which they like," Mr. Yigit said. "As the director intended, backwards, sideways, look at all the different nooks and crannies and play with all the different interactive features. I think it's a fundamental difference from the older generations."

Big business is doing its part, too. Film studio Warner Bros., a division of New York-based media giant AOL Time Warner Inc., has led the Hollywood drive to push down the wholesale price of DVDs. New releases sell for as little as $25.

Research indicates that owners of DVD players are more likely to buy than rent. Adams Media Research of Carmel Valley, Calif., reports that DVD users purchase an average of 16 discs a year, compared with five or six videotapes bought by VCR owners. In the United States last year, consumers spent $12.1-billion (U.S.) buying DVDs, surpassing for the first time the $9.4-billion rung in at the domestic box office.

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