It's unreel: DVD rentals overtake videocassettes

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Rewinding movies is becoming a thing of the past.

DVD rentals outpaced videocassette rentals last week for the first time, the Video Software Dealers Association reported.

For the week ended Sunday, 28.2 million DVDs were rented vs. 27.3 million VHS cassettes, according to the trade association's VidTrac, a point-of-sale tracking technology.

"The American public has fallen in love with DVDs," said Sean Devlin Bersell, a video association spokesman. "The acceptance of DVD has exceeded every expectation."

Weekly revenue from DVD rentals began exceeding VHS rental revenue in the week ended March 16, according to VidTrac.

Since then, weekly DVD rental revenue generally has been beating VHS rental revenue. But the number of VHS rentals was greater than the number of DVDs rented -- until last week.

Americans have accepted DVDs faster than they did black-and-white TV, color TV, VCRs and CD players, said Mr. Bersell. About 50 million Americans have bought DVD players since they were introduced in 1997. It took the VCR 10 years to reach the same threshold.

The most attractive feature, he says, are the bonus materials that videos don't have. Mr. Bersell said he spent three evenings watching just the bonus material of his favorite movie, "The Wizard of Oz."

"I love that DVD. By the fourth night, I turned to my wife an asked: Can we watch the movie now?" he said, laughing.