Fitness DVDs Flex Muscle

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Pop it in, pump it up and buy another: That’s been the surprising routine for consumers of fitness DVDs at the same time that streaming video and mailed rentals have cut into overall disc sales.

Indeed, increased demand has led to annual revenue growth of 11.2 percent since 2007 for producers of fitness DVDs, according to a recent report from Santa Monica market research firm IBIS World.

Local players include Santa Monica’s Beachbody, creator of the popular P90X routine, and West Hollywood’s Watch It Now Entertainment, which produces discs featuring Bob Harper, a trainer on NBC’s “The Biggest Loser,” among other titles.

So why the staying power of fitness DVDs?

“It’s different than a movie. You need to have it and own it,” according to Darren Capik, chief executive of Watch It Now.

Analysts also attribute it to those old-school entertainment setups found in many home exercise rooms, which often are not as connected as the living room to cable or devices such as an Xbox 360 that can stream Internet video.

Still, it’s not as though the fitness community isn’t plugged in. Capik said he sells discs directly from Harper’s website and his company is rolling out a streaming fitness program featuring the celebrity trainer that costs $9.99 to access per month.

He expects streaming video to eventually overtake DVDs as the dominant medium for workout programs. But for the time being, he expects most sales to come from physical discs, which can retail for $49.95 for a bundle of five.

“The last DVD ever sold will be a fitness DVD,” he said.