Sony Corp. has said it will stop producing recordable Blu-ray discs as of next month, in what is the latest blow to the physical media industry.
The announcement came via a short statement on Sony’s website (translated from Japanese), where it said it’s ending the production of "Blu-ray disc media, recording mini discs, recording MD data, mini DV cassettes", and adding that there will not be any successor models.
With the statement, Sony is ending more than 18 years of Blu-ray disc production, having launched its first products back in 2006, shortly after the technology became commercially available as a superior alternative to traditional DVDs.
It should be pointed out that Sony’s exit concerns home recordable Blu-ray discs, notably the BD-R and BD-RE formats, and not the production of Blu-Ray and UHD Blu-Ray movies and boxsets that can be bought and collected online and in stores. These will continue to be manufactured, for now.
The announcement was not entirely unexpected given the decline of physical media, and it follows a decision by the company to end the production of recordable Blu-ray discs for the consumer market last July.
At the time of that earlier announcement, Sony said it will continue producing optical discs for businesses, as a long-term medium for data storage, while it is still profitable to do so. It’s that operation that is now being shut down.
The decision reflects the trend that has seen video streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video become the most popular way for movies and TV shows to be distributed and consumed. Since streaming platforms made their breakthrough in the last decade, sales of physical discs have declined rapidly, causing manufacturers to lose interest.
Sony was one of the world’s major manufacturers of recordable Blu-ray discs, but it wasn’t the only one. Its competitors included Panasonic, which so far has not made any statement about closing that segment of its business down.
Despite the news, there are reasons to think Blu-ray discs will remain a viable technology for some time to come, for they have other applications besides movies. For instance, games consoles like the Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox both use Blu-ray discs for physical copies of video games, and the format has also seen increased uptake in the music industry by some artists looking to launch their work in higher resolution, and therefore higher quality formats.
Another note is that Sony didn’t say anything about stopping the production of 4K Blu-ray discs. This is a much newer format, and though there have been questions about its future, sales of the media continue to flow, as they remain popular with “purists” who like to watch content at the best possible resolution.
Neither Sony nor Panasonic have announced any new 4K Blu-Ray media players since 2019, and others, like Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics, have exited the business. However, a few specialist brands like Magnetar and Reavon, have stepped up to take over the market for 4K Blu-ray media players, catering to a sizable number of enthusiasts who still want them.
Sony’s withdrawal from the production of standard Blu-ray discs is undoubtedly a blow, especially considering the company was originally one of the first pioneers of the new format, but we can be optimistic that physical media will still be around as an alternative to streaming for some time to come.
