Digital Movie Sales to Increase Tenfold by 2017

CHICAGO: The sales from the digital downloads, subscription streaming and VOD transactions for movies has more than quadrupled in the last five years, according to market researcher Mintel, which projects that gains will increase tenfold in the ten-year period from 2007 to 2017.

Sales went from $1.3 billion in 2007 to a reported $5.5 billion for 2012. Traditional DVD rentals are still the most popular way to rent movies, however online streaming services—Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, etcetera—are gaining in popularity. Nearly one-quarter of respondents say they have used online streaming in the last 30 days and 22 percent have used a pay-TV method. This trend is particularly prevalent in the younger demographics. More than half of those 18 to 24 have rented a movie or TV show in the past 30 days through a monthly subscription method. In addition, 55 percent of 18-to-24s rented via a streaming service.

Apple’s iTunes remains the leader in digital movie sales. Six in ten respondents who purchased a movie from a digital store in the past 30 days did so through iTunes. This is more than twice the share that did so through Amazon and three times as many as any other competitor.

"We live in a time of instant gratification and the idea of waiting for a movie to arrive in the mail or actually driving to a store to get one is an idea of the past," said Billy Hulkower, senior technology analyst at Mintel. "Increased acceptance of all intangible media, including music, photos, books and games is a driver with consumers increasingly acclimated to the immediacy of all digital formats."