Warner Home Vid tops in VHS, DVD sales

Consumers spent $2.4 billion on Warner vid titles in 2000

By SCOTT HETTRICK

Warner Home Video was the market leader with 20.31% of all videos sold to consumers last year, according to a report by VideoScan.

Higher-priced Disney videos from Buena Vista Home Entertainment generated more revenue overall for the year, but according to research by Daily Variety sister publication Video Business, Warner topped Buena Vista in the combined number of DVD and VHS titles sold. Warner claimed a 28.42% share of the DVD market, compared to 14.28% for Buena Vista and 16.4% for Universal Studios Home Video, according to VideoScan.

Consumers spent $2.4 billion on the purchase of Warner vid titles in 2000, according to Video Business, and another $1.4 billion on rentals. More than $1.2 billion of that overall $3.8 billion was spent on the rental and purchase of Warner DVDs.

In the wake of the closures of several regional distributors last year, Warner made a radical change, naming a single distributor -- Ingram Entertainment -- to handle wholesale distribution of all its rental-priced product.