U.S. Home-Entertainment Spending on the Rise

LOS ANGELES: Third-quarter home-entertainment spending in the U.S. was up 5 percent, marking the first increase in figures since 2008’s first quarter, according to a new report from Digital Entertainment Group.

Total spending in the U.S. on home entertainment reached $18.8 billion.

Blu-ray Disc and electronic sell-through (EST) spending saw gains, up 68 percent and 13 percent, respectively, compared to the same period last year. For major box-office releases, sales often exceed 50 percent on Blu-ray in their first week. Catalogue Blu-ray sales had year-on-year increases of more than 60 percent, led by classics such as Star Wars, Citizen Kane, Scarface and The Big Lebowski.

Brick-and-mortar store rentals fell by $142 million to $353 million, however, there was a $152 million gain in new delivery methods, such as online streaming, VOD, mail-order subscriptions and rentals from kiosks. Revenue from those rental methods rose to $1.7 billion. Kiosk rentals made up more than half of those gains. Consumer spending on digital distribution grew 19 percent to $2.5 billion. VOD brought in $1.8 billion, up 20.8 percent for the year. Broadband EST grew 15.7 percent to $683 million.