Q3 Consumer Spending on Subscription Streaming Jumped 23.3%, DEG Says

Q3 U.S. consumer spending on home entertainment content inched upward by 0.2 percent to $3.97 billion on vibrant spending on subscription streaming, which jumped 23.3 percent to $1.27 billion, the Digital Entertainment Group said Friday in its quarterly trends report. Total Q3 spending on digital delivery, including subscription streaming, electronic sell-through and VOD, jumped 15.8 percent to $1.44 billion, DEG said. But it was another tough quarter for packaged media, as sell-through of physical discs fell 14 percent to $1.15 billion and subscription-based rentals of physical media, such as through the Netflix legacy DVD business, fell 15.6 percent to $173.1 million, it said. For the nine months through Sept. 30, total spending was up 0.4 percent to $12.73 billion on a 15.8 percent rise on digital delivery spending to $6.44 billion and despite a 14.2 percent decline in physical media sell-through to $3.94 billion. For Q3, consumers “continued to embrace the convenience and accessibility of purchasing and collecting digital content, with studios reaping the higher margins that come from digital sales,” DEG said.