U.K. Home Entertainment Market Hits £2.6 Billion

The U.K.’s home entertainment sector grew by 9.5 percent in 2019, bringing the total market value to £2.6 billion ($3.4 billion), driven by streaming.

Figures released by the British Association for Screen Entertainment (BASE) and based on data from the Official Charts Company and Futuresource Consulting show that 65.9 percent of the market value is now generated by SVOD services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.

With 39.6 percent of SVOD subscribers are also transacting on physical or digital formats, as well as the 7.2 million consumers without subscriptions, the transactional home entertainment market remains “vital” and is worth more than £891 million ($1.7 million) in 2019. Fifty-four percent of that value is attributed to the purchase of DVD, Blu-ray and 4K UHD formats.

Growth in EST (electronic sell-through, or digital purchase) of 4.5 percent in volume and 3.5 percent in value suggests that “the digital revolution that has taken place in recent years is increasingly permeating the choices consumers are making for owned media too, with increasing numbers of consumers opting to grow their digital collections as well as the collections on shelves at home,” according to BASE.

In the TV arena, Game of Thrones: Complete 8th Season saw more than 192,000 copies sold in the final four weeks of the year, topping the TV title chart and landing in the top ten for consumer spend on disc, and also helping the Game of Thrones catalog secure the title of best-selling TV franchise of 2019. Chernobyl saw sales of 116,000, making it the second highest-selling TV title of the year. Doctor Who ranked as the second-highest selling TV franchise of the year.

In film, Bohemian Rhapsody was the best-selling title of the year, with more than 1.70 million copies sold across physical and digital home entertainment formats.

Liz Bales, chief executive of BASE, said: “In a year that has seen consolidation between studios and independent distributors alike, the reality is that consumption habits are changing and are likely to continue to do so, with the debut of D2C services like Disney+, Peacock and HBO Max all likely to further catalyze that change. At the same time, it remains clear that ownership—whether on the best possible physical formats like Blu-ray and 4K UHD or, increasingly, digital ownership with its own set of flexible benefits like watching wherever on the go and instant access—remains of significant value to many of us. Collection, curation and gifting are clearly continued gateways to the transactional video sector, but so too is the fact that planning a night with friends or family has an emotional resonance that many of us remain wedded to. Opportunity often comes from change, as evidenced by the U.K. production boom, and so we look to 2020 with excitement and a wealth of content and delivery well equipped to meet evolving audience needs.”

Kevin Dersley, co-vice chair of BASE and managing director of Elevation Sales, said: “The U.K.’s creative industries make a significant contribution to both GDP and the broader employment landscape, something likely to be further enhanced by the success of emerging SVOD platforms and by the response to that from other quarters. All of this change endorses the buoyancy of film and TV content but as a category, we must ensure we’re fleet of foot and part of the ongoing digital revolution mentioned earlier. We know that audiences find enormous value in our content and the first half of 2020, packed with diverse new IP as well as must-see franchise titles, should serve as the perfect reminder that in a market of consumers hungry for content, there’s plenty of room for those able to adapt.”

David Sidebottom, principal analyst for entertainment at Futuresource Consulting, said: “Consumer appetite for paid-for digital video continued its impressive momentum in 2019. Both EST and iVOD grew once again, albeit at a lower rate than previously after an incredibly strong 2018 performance. SVOD goes from strength to strength, as the new wave of SVOD service heralds the next era of digital video, as we enter 2020.”