The above chart compares current combined VHS and DVD rentals to that of a year previous to the listed dates. The Video Flash Barometer for the rental market is a presentation of weekly volumes, indexed and averaged, of tapes rented. The index is based on the average tapes rented per week during the second quarter of 1987 (set equal to “100”). The barometer has been extremely useful in understanding, visualizing and anticipating developments in the home video market.

In addition to the regular weekly volumes and title tracking, we track the top retail outlets. Our rental data can be analyzed by zip code, income, gender, age, children in the household, race, cable in the household, personal computer in the household, and a variety of other ways.

Our quarterly report breaks down the rental market into the top 100 titles of the current year, and the top 200 titles ever. If you have any questions pertaining to the domestic home video market, email aainfo@alexassoc.com or phone 212.684.2333.

If you are a retailer, you should be plotting your numbers to compare to these graphs. Here's how you do it: sum up all tapes rented for a seven day period ending Monday; create sums for each of the seveb-day periods since January 1; then create a three week "moving average" of rental activity in your store(s) by averaging the first three weeks to get a number (that goes into week 3); then average the next three weeks (weeks 2 to 4 with the result in week 4); and so on. Then compare the shape of your business to this chart.

Let us hear from you if you want more information or assistance. In our subscription Retailer section, we are also offering special data on individual markets -- all the better to compare to! Send a note by clicking here if you are interested.