Good news for Sony in the UK, as sales of Blu-ray discs have reportedly seen a ’surge’ during December, despite the so called credit crunch.

The British Video Association (a trade body for home entertainment publishers) has cobbled together data using official chart figures showing that the home entertainment market is “alive & kicking” despite the difficult trading conditions for retail in the UK.

“The surge in sales of Blu-ray discs was driven by a strong performance throughout the year, credit crunch notwithstanding. Blu-ray disc sales hit a new high in the run-up to Christmas; 1.5 million discs were sold in December alone, up almost 400% against the same period in 2007. In total the format has sold 3.7 million units in 2008, demonstrating the public’s enthusiasm for high quality picture and sound in the home.”

“Dark Knight (Warner Home Video) has taken the crown for best selling Blu-ray title of the year with 281,000 copies sold (including sales of the box set with Batman Begins) on the high definition format in just three weeks. Released in early December it became the best-selling Blu-ray title in history, selling more copies on Blu-ray in its first full week (178,000 copies including Batman Begins box-set) in the shops than any other movie ever released on the format.”

In fact sales must have been good because even a fortnight later I can’t find the Dark Knight on the High Street shelves anywhere, still good news for Sony UK.

These results are particularly impressive because a year ago Blu-ray shared the high definition spotlight with the now defunct HD-DVD format and both formats were receiving heavy retailer discounting.

The other news to come out of the story is that I’m not the only one with a copy of Mamma Mia! in my Blu-ray collection as that also did rather well.

[Source: BVA]