DVD player ownership in Ireland is on the slide

Seven in 10 homes still have one, but Comreg figures show rate has declined

There has been a “slight decline” in the number of people who own DVD players.  Photograph: Dara Mac Donaill
There has been a “slight decline” in the number of people who own DVD players. Photograph: Dara Mac Donaill

The concept of “sticking on a DVD” will already seem antiquated to those early adopters who are adept at finding whatever it is they want to watch on some streaming service somewhere, whether official or not-so-official.

But figures from the Commission for Communications Regulation (Comreg) confirm that that ownership of DVD players has gone into reverse.

Some 70 per cent of the Republic’s 1,583,000 “television homes” are equipped with a DVD player as of January 2015, but this figure was 75 per cent three years ago.

Comreg calls the trend a “slight decline”, but the writing may be on the wall for the Digital Versatile Disc.

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As far back as 2012, the Central Statistics Office removed rented DVDs from the basket of typical consumer goods used to calculate inflation. Mind you, it also got rid of ladies' slippers . . .

Laura Slattery

Laura Slattery

Laura Slattery is an Irish Times journalist writing about media, advertising and other business topics