Spending on Blu-ray Disc software was up 91% in the first half of 2009 to $407 million, according to today"s mid-year report from DEG: The Digital Entertainment Group (www.degonline.org).

That"s even more notable in the context of the overall market for packaged media, which was down 3.9% to $9.73 billion, and a whopping 13.5% in the sellthrough category alone. Those numbers would have been much worse had it not been for Blu-ray, which saw a 62% increase in rentals, driving that category up 8.3% overall.

Also propping up the numbers was a 21% increase in digital distribution to $968 million, including $196 million for electronic sellthrough.