US Consumer Spending on Home Entertainment Content Jumped 0.9% in 2015, DEG Says

U.S. consumer spending on home entertainment content jumped 0.9 percent in 2015 from a year earlier to $18.1 billion, the Digital Entertainment Group said Wednesday in its year-end report. For Q4, the rise in spending was 1.3 percent to $5.3 billion, DEG said. Subscription streaming was the year’s big winner, rising nearly 25 percent to $5.1 billion, it said. Subscription rentals of physical media was the year’s biggest loser, declining nearly 16 percent to $667 million, it said. Sell-through spending on packaged goods fell 12 percent to $6.1 billion, it said. However, with 8 percent growth in Blu-ray sales, the industry, sell-through-wise, “saw its best year over year physical retail performance since early 2014,” DEG said. “The strength of the premium experience bodes well for the introduction of Ultra HD Blu-ray in 2016.”