End of an era: LG stops production of Blu-ray players

South Korean company LG has stopped producing Blu-ray players, which could be bad news for fans of films on physical media. Among the large companies, only Sony and Panasonic still produce devices of this type.

Image source: LG

It’s been almost six years since LG launched its latest Blu-ray players, the UBK80 and UBK90 UHD. Now it has become known that the company no longer intends to produce either these or any other optical disc players. In the future, LG can only sell off existing stocks.

LG has not officially confirmed that it will cease production of Blu-ray players, which could give the company a chance to return to the market if demand for such devices grows. However, this option seems unlikely, since optical disc players are not very popular among consumers. Thus, LG has joined the list of companies that have abandoned the production of Blu-ray players. Oppo did this in 2018, and Samsung did this a year later.

Sales of Blu-ray players have been steadily declining in recent years, primarily due to the growing popularity of streaming services. For example, in the United States, sales of such devices decreased from 25.2 million in 2014 to 9.1 million in 2018. In the third quarter of this year, sales of DVD and Blu-ray players fell 26% compared to the same period last year.