Market penetration of Blu-ray DVDs very slow in S. Korea

By Kim Young-gyo

SEOUL, Nov. 26 (Yonhap) -- Less than 0.6 percent of South Korean households have Blu-ray Disc players, which were thought to be next generation alternatives to DVD players, said a head of a home distributor on Wednesday.

"There are only a handful of South Korean films in the Blu-ray Disc format, most
of which are released by a company called 'KD Media'," said Yu Seok-dong, CEO of
the Art Service at a forum held at central Seoul.
According to Yu, some 100,000 units of the players are expected to be sold by end
of this year among 16 million households.
The numbers of units sold in 2006 and 2007 were 2,000 and 31,000 respectively.
Meanwhile, the penetration rate of the DVD players in South Korea was 19 percent
by 2007, or 3.1 million, excluding the number of DVD-Rom drives attached to
personal computers, Yu said.
"If there is no government support, South Korea's home video market will decline
to a US$37.1 million business by 2010 from US$201.5 million in 2002," he said.
"While VHS market has gradually become smaller, the DVD market in the country
drastically shrank in 2007 with a 31 percent drop to a $29.6 million business."
With Warner Brothers shutting down its home entertainment business division at
the end of this year, there is no Hollywood major distributor in South Korea
which sells home videos or DVDs directly.
More than 94 percent of households in South Korea are reported to have broadband
connections.
According to the Korean Film Council, more than 47 percent of people surveyed
said they download movies from the Internet at least once a year.