Home Entertainment Content Spending Jumped 2.6% in First Half, Says DEG

U.S. consumer spending on home entertainment content rose 2.6 percent in 2017's first half to $9.17 billion, said a Digital Entertainment Group Thursday midyear report. Subscription streaming was the report’s big winner, as spending in that sector jumped 24 percent in first half to $3.62 billion, DEG said. Brick-and-mortar rentals moved closer to extinction, falling 20.2 percent to $207.11 million. Though sell-through of packaged goods fell 10.4 percent in the first half to $2.31 billion, the rate of decline in Q2 was only 5.8 percent, after the 14.3 percent decline in Q1. This was due to a 2 percent Q2 rise in spending on Blu-ray titles. Other findings: (1) More than 4.8 million Ultra HD TVs were sold in the first half, bringing the total number of sets sold to date above 20 million; (2) About a million Ultra HD Blu-ray playback devices were sold in the first half, bringing the number of players sold life to date to 4.3 million, including game console; (3) availability of Ultra HD Blu-ray content is “expanding rapidly,” with 166 titles on the market.