Category Archives: CD Duplication services

With disc duplication becoming more of a niche market many duplicators are looking to lateral markets for inspiration. Perhaps they should look Heavenwards instead!

The religious market is on the increase, in disc terms. And whilst the trend for this kind of religious promotion may be founded in the emergence of many African Christian Ministries across Europe, there are many “mainstream” religious organisations that are finding the use of DVD is providing them with a vehicle that not only provides them with a medium to raise much needed funds, but also spreads the Word.

Whilst we in the duplication industry suffer our decline in numbers, religion as a whole, no matter the faith or the denomination, has been suffering it’s own decline in numbers for many years.

Whychurch.org quote a predictive figure of 55% decline in churchgoers in the UK by 2020 on the 1950 attendance rate. Whilst this is going a small piece in the Telegraph newspaper published January 2012 stated a small rise in UK Church attendance since the start of the recession. Quoting the Telegraph’s figures of attendance at 50% in the middle of the 19^th Century to 12% in 1979 and 7.5% in 1998 the UK Census of 2005 concluded 6.3% of the population claimed to be regular churchgoers. This equated to 3.2 million people.

According to The Telegraph, Islam is an exception to the rule, with attendees on the raise due mainly to immigration and more certainty within the faith.

Taking all this into consideration, it would appear that therefore there is a potential market in the region of 3 million for DVD with religious based content across the UK.

Many of the religious organisations that are producing DVD at present like to be in control of their own production. There are many tower duplicators and inkjet disc printers housed in small rooms within these organisations where sermons, lectures, choirs singing, bells ringing, educational & training materials are edited, mastered and duplicated.

Many of these religious organisations are producing multi disc sets some of them of radio broadcasts. These are distributed in parts of the world where Internet access is a privilege and not the normal, essential service we see it as.

With more people attending the Church Of England than English Premier League soccer in the UK every weekend the potential for earning is high. Twenty-five thousand people attending an English Premier League game will pay £25 at the lower end for a ticket.  That’s £ 625,000 in tickets alone. If the Church Of England could sell a set of DVDs to 10% of it’s monthly congregation of 1.7 million people for  £ 7.99 it’s sales would be £ 1,358,300.

While some might find these kind of figures and religion a distasteful partnership, the truth of the matter is that any organization, regardless of size, status, ambition or direction, has to pay it’s own way. If it cannot, then it’s existence and longevity is questionable.

So as duplicators we best start praying. It’s probably safe to say that non-profit organisations are copying more discs than we are, as professional duplicators, in any given period. Not only that, but we are not offering enough incentive and being proactive enough within the religious market to earn a slice of the pie.

And as they say in some churches, “Here endeth the lesson”.