Sales Of DVDs Boom In France
Discs Have $84 Million In Sales, VHS Still Tops With $418 Million By Alison James, Daily Variety
The French DVD market exploded in 1999, with the number sold leaping from 700,000 in 1998 to 4.5 million, the French distributors organization Le Syndicat de líEdition Video reported Tuesday, March 14, 2000. Sales totaled $84 million, with an average of 13 DVDs bought for every player. VHS cassettes, however, took the lionís share of the video business in France with 40 million units sold, a slight increase of 0.5 percent on 1998 even though there was no new ""Titanic"" to boost the market. Sales totaled $418 million, down 11 percent on 1998 because of lower prices. Turnover for the whole sector, including video rental and LaserDisc sales, reached $585 million, up 1.5 percent on the previous year