U.K. Home Entertainment Sector Surpasses £5 Billion

Consumer spending across visual home entertainment in the U.K. rose to £5.1 billion ($6.3 billion) in 2024, the highest ever recorded figure for the sector, according to the British Association for Screen Entertainment (BASE).

The total value of the media and entertainment industry in the U.K. in 2024 was £30 billion ($37.2 billion), which includes transactional and pay-TV home entertainment, cinema, games and music.

The value of the U.K. home entertainment category accounted for 17 percent of that number, inclusive of all SVOD, PVOD and VOD, PEST and EST, DVD, Blu-Ray, 4K UHD and box sets. The total value of the U.K. screen sector rose to £12.4 billion ($15.4 billion).

Liz Bales, chief executive of BASE, said: “Visual entertainment is the most popular entertainment pastime in the U.K., and audiences make savvy choices across the spectrum of home entertainment formats available to them, spending in excess of £5 billion ($6.2 billion). Premium digital formats have already set records in 2025, just a few weeks into the year: Wicked was released on PVOD and PEST on January 3 and became the most popular premium title since records began in the U.K. Ad revenue has added £1.7 billion ($2.1 billion) across the range of online video services in the U.K., and £400 million ($498 million) to consumer spend on SVOD, while simultaneously there were 73 more FAST channels launched across all FAST services in the U.K. since the beginning of the year, where the total number is now well over 700, enabled by the likes of Samsung, LG, Roku and others to bring the digital high-street directly to consumers’ living rooms. While audiences love film and TV shows, the industry will continue to grow and evolve, to offer more and better.”

Consumer take-up of streaming services in 2024 rose to 54.1 million, up 2 percent year on year, with 70 percent of U.K. subscribers choosing services that include ads for a reduced subscription fee. The value of the sector rose to £4.5 billion ($5.6 billion), up 8 percent, supported by the introduction of advertising and the additional tiers available to consumers, who can still choose to watch without advertising for a higher fee. The addition of advertising contributed to a 36 percent year-on-year growth for U.K. premium advertising-supported online video revenue, which grew to £1.7 billion ($2.1 billion).

One in five global online video subscriptions in the U.K. are now part of a “bundle” of services. The most popular individual streaming service in the U.K. in 2024 was Netflix, followed by Prime Video and Disney+.

There are more than 750 FAST channels in the U.K. across the most popular eight FAST-enabled services. The revenue from FAST is predicted to double in the next five years, rising to £9.7 billion ($12 billion) by 2029. Monthly average users (MAUs) for services offering FAST channels have more than doubled, from 5 percent in Q3 2021 to 13 percent in Q3 2024.

Marie-Claire Benson, executive VP and head of the motion picture group at Lionsgate UK and BASE co-chair, said: “Following a buoyant 2024 marked by increased cinema admissions, exceptional results from premium windows and continued resilience in the physical market, U.K. entertainment momentum shows no signs of slowing. We saw 22 percent of the 2024 box office generated in the final seven weeks of 2024, and this success is already translating to digital platforms.”