Goodbye to more DVDs? Best Buy plans to phase out sales of physical movies in the coming months
NEW YORK –
Best Buy is saying goodbye to movie-watching with bodily discs.
The shopper electronics retailer plans to part out its DVD and Blu-ray gross sales by early 2024 — with bodily motion pictures set to be bought in-stores and on-line as they’re in the present day by means of the vacations, Best Buy confirmed to The Associated Press Friday. Video video games is not going to be impacted.
“To state the obvious, the way we watch movies and TV shows is much different today than it was decades ago,” the corporate stated in an emailed assertion. “Making this change gives us more space and opportunity to bring customers new and innovative tech for them to explore, discover and enjoy.”
Best Buy is not the one firm to start out shifting away from bodily media in current months. Last month, Netflix’s DVD-by-mail service, for instance, formally got here to an in depth as the corporate’s iconic red-and-white envelopes made their last journey.
Speculation concerning the destiny of Best Buy’s bodily motion pictures started swirling round this week after a number of media retailers reported on the corporate’s plans.
Entertainment weblog The Digital Bits was the primary to share the news Thursday, citing sources acquainted with the matter. And based on Variety, which additionally cited trade sources, Best Buy made the preliminary choice to finish DVD gross sales 9 months in the past.
Minnesota-based Best Buy earned US$274 million, or US$1.25 per share, throughout the second quarter of 2023. That topped Wall Street expectations, however was nonetheless under the US$306 million the corporate earned in the identical interval final 12 months.
Second-quarter gross sales fell 7.2 per cent to US$9.58 billion, barely higher than analyst estimates. Comparable gross sales — gross sales from bodily shops open at the least a 12 months, and digital channels — fell 6.3 per cent, dragged down by declines in computing and home equipment. While equipment and digital gross sales fell, the leisure class elevated by 9.1 per cent.
