Pro Camcorder Market: Futuresource Announces End of Year Market Results for EMEA and USA

The pro camcorder market suffered a slump in volumes last year in both EMEA and USA, according to the latest research from Futuresource Consulting's Professional Camcorder tracking service.

Dunstable (I-Newswire) February 25, 2013 - EMEA Pro Camcorder Market
"Despite the slump, last year's figure of 70,400 units - down by 8.5% year-on-year - is still a respectable market size for EMEA," says Adam Cox, Head of Broadcast Equipment, Futuresource Consulting. "Apart from in 2011, this volume has only been bettered once before and this was in 2008, before the economic downturn."

The problem for vendors in this market is that although there is a general trend for volumes to increase, one of the reasons behind this is that the price of a professional camcorder is coming down significantly.

"Between 2006 and 2012 the average selling price in EMEA dropped by 1,799 Euros (32%), posing obvious difficulties for vendors," says Cox. "However, if market volumes increase at a fast enough rate this can be compensated for. The benefit of falling price points is that it is allowing the democratisation of professional video; more end users are entering the market as demand for online video grows and non-traditional customer groups, such as the publishing world, need to produce high quality video. This, along with the rise of large sensor camcorders, is widening the addressable market for professional products, but volumes, in 2012 at least, have not been able to compensate for the drop in price.

"This has meant that the overall market value has contracted by 18% over this time period despite a 20% increase in volume."

US Pro Camcorder Market
"Looking to the US, we saw a significant decline in 2012, decreasing by 18% from 2011's record volume levels, reaching a total of 54,800 units shipped," says Cox. "We can attribute this to a number of factors, including strong sales in the two preceding years and a record volume figure in 2011, which has resulted in some level of market saturation.

"This is compounded by the fact that the state of the economy is putting off potential buyers from purchasing, increasing the product life cycle to three to four years at the low end, up from the two to three years witnessed in recent times.

"Additionally, HD-capable DSLRs are still negatively impacting the professional camcorder market, despite large sensor camcorders being on the market for over two years now. Sales of video capable DSLRs are still being seen as a real threat by dealers, with the effects particularly being felt at the low end of the market. The obvious drawbacks of using DSLRs for video are still being counteracted by the fashion to use DSLRs on shoots."