The Digital Entertainment Group, a trade entity that used to count and tout the amount of VHS tapes rented at places like Blockbuster Video, and later, the number of DVDs peddled at outlets like Walmart, believes SVOD services like Netflix and Disney+ fall into the “home entertainment” bucket, too.
And if you look at it that way, business is a-boomin'.
According to the DEG, U.S. consumers spent around $25.2 billion on home entertainment in 2019, defined the the DEG way, with $15.9 billion of that revenue, 63%, derived by subscription video on demand. The SVOD tally represented a 23.7% uptick from 2018. Overall, home entertainment was up 8.4% year over year, the group said.
Green shoots also include the digital “transactional” business — that is, movie sales through outlets like Google Play, Amazon, Vudo, Fandango, etc. Sales there were up 5.1% to $2.6 billion. The Disney/Marvel comic book movie Avengers: Endgame was the top-selling home entertainment movie title last year, DEG said.
Not surprisingly, physical media continues to decline — sales of movies and TV shows on DVD and Blu-ray declined 18.2%, to $3.29 billion.
So, are subscription video-on-demand platforms like HBO Now and Showtime OTT really “home entertainment,” and not extensions of the traditional broadcast and TV businesses? In this new era of digital consumption, categories are being redefined, and DEG is claiming the growth area of SVOD as a key contributor to the home entertainment bucket.
