Welcome to the DVD Age.

Good-bye VCR….

It is official. One communications age has ended, and another has begun. But is that good news, or not?

According to the latest “Home Technology Report” from Nielsen Media Research, more US households now own DVD players than VCRs — 81.2% vs. 79.2%, respectively.

In 1999, when Nielsen first started tracking DVD ownership, DVD penetration was only 6.7%, dwarfed by VCR ownership at 88.6%. But as of the third quarter 2006, DVD penetration in the US was up 6% from the previous year, and it continues to grow. At the same time, VCR penetration started declining.

“This study shows the culmination of a long battle for share of consumers,” said Paul Lindstrom of Nielsen Media Research. “We now see that the popularity of DVDs has finally surpassed that of VCRs.”

The report also found that DVD households now rent DVDs about twice a month, compared with VCR homes, which rent VHS tapes only about once a month.

There is a possible dark side to the advent of the DVD age, according to Bill Hammack of American Public Media’s Marketplace Report.

In 1984, ruling in the Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios case, the Supreme Court found that VCR makers could not be held liable for copyright infringement. But in February of 2004, a federal court ruled that software makers must cease making software that allows consumers to copy DVD video discs.

“The US has a long history of fair use. You have the right to cut out and frame a New Yorker cartoon. Or photocopy a newspaper article,” said Mr. Hammack. “The slow demise of VHS tape risks the literary and intellectual canon of the coming century becoming locked into a digital vault accessible only to a few.”

For more information at http://emarketer.com