by , 12:40 PM EDT, September 16th, 2008

Netflix CFO Barry McCarthy said that his company doesn't see Blu-ray being a big influence on its business and the number of subscribers who rent Blu-ray movies remains in the low single digits, according to Home Media Magazine on Monday.

He said that adoption of the format has been slow, but that may change over the holidays. "It [popularity] may grow after the holiday selling season, if sales are slow and prices are cut more aggressively," he said.

Noting that typical Blu-ray player prices are still close to US$400 now, he predicted about $300 for next year. Others have been more optimistic in their predictions.

Ealier in the year, Netflix announced that it may have to raise prices for those requesting Blu-ray movies. Mr. McCarthy didn't have anything new to say about the increase, but the very low percentage doesn't seem to place much urgency on those plans.

In addition, the low single digit percentage of customers requesting Blu-ray movies is a telling indicator of the state of Bu-ray, especialy amongst those people who are most interested in movies.

There will likely be a wide range of prices for various levels of Blu-ray players for sale during the holidays. How well the manufacturers and retailers guage the customer price points and features could well dictate whether Blu-ray finally takes off in a big way or experiences a slow, frustrating growth in the U.S.