DEG: Blu-ray, Streaming, VOD Spending Rises

Greg Tarr On Oct 26 2012 - 2:40pm

Los Angeles – Blu-ray Discs, electronic sell-through (EST) and video-on-demand (VOD) all registerd the home entertainment industry’s highest growth margin marks for the third quarter 2012, according to a study released Friday by the Digital Entertainment Group.

The home entertainment industry’s promotions group said Blu-ray, EST and VOD all saw material increases as overall consumer spending on home entertainment content remained stable with a 0.24 percent increase compared with the third quarter of 2011.

Among the most promising trends in the period were the following:

• Consumers are embracing the expansion of digital products and services. UltraViolet registrations surpassed 6 million, and will expand into Canada in the fourth quarter.
• EST sales and rentals rose an 37.7 percent in the third quarter compared with the same period last year.
• VOD spending rose more than 8.4 percent in the quarter from a year ago.
• Blu-ray Discs sales continued to gain, with spending up nearly 13 percent in the quarter.
• Sales of catalog Blu-ray Disc titles rose 22 percent in the quarter from a year earlier, making three full quarters of sales growth for the category this year.

From a hardware standpoint, sales of Blu-ray players into homes rose 5 percent in the quarter to 2.8 million Blu-ray Disc players (including BD set-tops, PS3s and HTiBs). Total household penetration of all Blu-ray-compatible devices now stands at close to 50 million U.S. homes.

In addition, 7.8 million HDTVs were sold to U.S. consumers in the period, raising HDTV U.S. household penetration to more than 101 million U.S. households to date.