SVOD Consumer Spending Topped $1.14 Billion in Q1, DEG Says

U.S. consumer spending on home entertainment content rose only 0.23 percent in Q1 to $4.6 billion from the year-ago quarter as double-digit increases in electronic sell-through and subscription streaming helped negate a double-digit decline in sell-through of packaged goods, the Digital Entertainment Group said Wednesday. Subscription VOD was Q1's big winner, rising 22.9 percent to $1.14 billion, while electronic sell-through jumped 22.3 percent to $430.9 million, DEG said. “Consumers electronically purchased significantly more catalog and family films, underscoring their preference for enjoying and collecting filmed entertainment digitally,” DEG said. Sell-through of physical media declined 13.3 percent to $1.58 billion, DEG said, though it accentuated the finding that Blu-ray players, including set-tops and game consoles, are installed in more than 90 million U.S. homes. It said HDTV penetration has grown to nearly 105 million U.S. homes. Wednesday's release of DEG’s report on the rapid rise of SVOD consumer spending in Q1 happened to coincide with Hulu's announcement Wednesday that within the first 90 days of 2015, total streams on its service increased 77 percent over the year-ago period. Viewers year to date have streamed more than 700 million hours of premium content on Hulu, it said. On average, each Hulu viewer is watching at least 30 percent more content on the service than a year ago, it said. “Every category of measurement including hours watched and hours streamed is up dramatically year over year,” Hulu CEO Mike Hopkins said in a statement.