So, as many of you may know Sony in Japan has issued a statement this morning (1/23/25) about their plans to discontinue Blu-ray Disc recordable media (BD-R and BD-RE). This will take effect beginning in February. Consumers will no longer be able to purchase Sony brand blank Blu-ray media once inventories have sold out at retailers.

All this essentially means is that Sony will stop manufacturing blank BD-R and BD-RE media. People will (eventually) no longer be able to purchase these products from them. The good news is that other companies manufacture blank Blu-ray Discs, such as Verbatim, Microbrands, PlexDisc, RiData, and Rimage. And that’s only naming a few of the brands. With some searching online you’ll be able to find blank Blu-ray media. So, there’s not even a current shortage.

The English-translated version of the Sony press statement:

“Dear Valued Customer,

Sony Storage Media Solutions Inc.
Sony Marketing Inc.

Notice regarding the end of production of Blu-ray Disc media, MiniDiscs for recording, MD data for recording, and MiniDV cassettes

Thank you for your continued patronage of Sony products.

We will end production of all models of Blu-ray Disc media, MiniDiscs for recording, MD data for recording, and MiniDV cassettes as of February 2025. There will be no successor models.

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to our many customers for their patronage to date.

[Discontinued model]

Blu-ray disc media, recording mini discs, recording MD data, mini DV cassettes,all models

[End of production]

Scheduled for February 2025″

What does this mean about the future of physical media? It concerns those of us who like to purchase our films on Blu-ray Disc and 4K UHD Blu-ray. Well, it means nothing really for that end of things. The major studios and distributors don’t use recordable discs. They have discs professionally manufactured at facilities like Vantiva, Sonopress, and Sony DADC. Sony’s discontinuation of recordable media simply has little impact on Blu-ray.

One of those Blu-ray authoring facilities happens to be Fidelity in Motion. They have clients such as Arrow Video, Carlotta Films, Synapse Films, Studiocanal, BFI, Eureka!, Flicker Alley, Powerhouse Films, Radiance Films, Warner Archive, 88 Films, Umbrella Entertainment, Via Vision/Imprint, Second Sight and Vinegar Syndrome. I spoke with David Mackenzie, the CEO of Fidelity in Motion. I had the honor to discuss this situation with him. From the start of our conversation, he knew this was causing significant misinformation in the physical media scene. I had noticed it too. I promised David that we would put the false information to rest and let the consumers know the truth here. Here’s what he had to say about this news.

David Mackenzie (CEO of Fidelity in Motion):

“This story has been inaccurately — and, I would argue, irresponsibly — reported by some media outlets apparently unaware of the key distinction between home-recordable media (BD-R and BD-RE discs) and the professionally replicated Blu-ray movies you buy in a store (BD-ROM). The latter is unaffected by Sony’s Storage Media division deciding to phase out home-recordable discs.

While the decline in recordable optical discs for computer data storage isn’t a positive sign for optical disc as a whole, it has no impact on what 99% of people associate with “Blu-ray”, which is packaged movies on disc with near-master image and sound quality.

To clarify, professionally mass-produced movies (whether on BD, DVD, or CD for that matter) are stamped in replication facilities rather than burned onto blank media. This efficient, high-speed manufacturing process is carried out in factories using machinery worth millions of dollars and remains entirely unaffected by Sony’s consumer division phasing out home-recordable discs. To use an analogy, it’s akin to the difference between a home-printed letter and a professionally printed and bound book. If an office supply company decided to stop selling blank paper to consumers, it wouldn’t signal the end of traditional book publishing.

Even from our perspective as a company that specializes in mastering movies for physical formats and outputs hundreds of titles a year, this decision has almost no impact. At Fidelity in Motion, writing data to a recordable disc is something I do less than once a year. For efficiency and faster turnaround times, we transitioned to pre-screening projects from HDDs and flash storage over half a decade ago. We encouraged our clients to do the same and helped them make the shift.

In the unlikely event that blank BD-Rs become completely unavailable – which is still far off, since Sony is not the only manufacturer – we will ensure that any of our clients lacking the necessary hardware for pre-screening from HDDs or flash storage are fully equipped.

Finally, I’ve noticed some reports linking Sony’s decision to the “rise in streaming services,” which is misleading. A more accurate explanation would attribute it to the increasing adoption of cloud storage and flash memory as modern computer data storage solutions.”

Lastly, I asked David about any impact he thought this has. I inquired specifically about the Manufactured On Demand (MOD) Blu-ray and 4K UHD Blu-ray releases. And here was his reply.

“For BD MOD: it is potentially a concern for MOD titles that are using recordable media, yes – although I’m not sure whose media these companies are using, since we really only deal with replicated titles. MOD BD-R is an extremely small percentage of the market for Blu-ray titles, though. If there’s any silver lining there, it’s that the recordable media industry has adapted to the fact that the average person isn’t burning discs at home anymore, and has repositioned home-burned recordable optical discs as a professional archival storage solution (see M-DISC). So, that could be a potential lifeline for BD-R. For UHD it’s a total non-concern, because there was never an Ultra HD Blu-ray recordable format to begin with. Any movie title you sell on UHD BD has to be replicated as a BD-ROM disc.”

Finally, I have reached out to some other authoring facilities and distributors, as well as those in the industry. I am awaiting any input from those and I will be updating this editorial accordingly.