04 May Quarterly Consumer Home Entertainment Spending Surpasses $10 Billion [Media Play News]
THOMAS K. ARNOLD
May 4, 2023 | Consumer spending on home entertainment hit a new milestone in the first quarter of this year, crossing the $10 billion mark for the very first time.
Preliminary estimates from DEG: The Digital Entertainment put the spending total at $10.1 billion, nearly 15% more than consumer spending in the first quarter of 2022.
The gain, DEG says, was driven by a 22% increase in subscription streaming revenue, which grew to $8.7 billion, from $7.1 billion in Q1 2022.
Consumer spending on traditional, transactional home entertainment continued to decline, the DEG reported. Disc sales and rentals brought in just $377 million, a 27% decline from the first quarter of last year (the DEG no longer breaks out separate sales and rental totals, though data tracked by Media Play News research estimates Q1 disc sales of $293 million, down 30% from Q1 2022). Digital transactions also were down, with digital sales (electronic sellthrough) falling 12.3% to $564.4 million, from $643.6 million a year ago, and digital rentals (transactional video-on-demand, or TVOD) slipping 11.5% to $443.5 million from $501.1 million.
The DEG noted, however, that the box office value of films released to the transactional home entertainment market in the first quarter of 2023 was up nearly 15% to $2.2 billion, which the trade group says is “a positive sign for home entertainment spending moving forward in 2023.”