For the first ever time, Brits will spend more on video streaming subscriptions and film/TV downloads than on buying and renting DVDs this year, according to Strategy Analytics. Consumers will reportedly spend £1.31 billion on streaming and downloading in 2016 (23.7 percent more than 2015), compared to £956 million on DVDs (includes Blu-ray), a 16.3 percent decline to below the £1 billion mark for the first time since 1994.
So, according to the research, online formats will account for 58 percent of home video spending, compared to 42 percent for DVDs — which had a share in 2015 of 52 percent.
“Five years ago, DVDs represented 86 percent of consumer spend on home video, and in five years it will be less than 14 percent, with DVD/Blu-ray rental virtually extinct,” Michael Goodman, Strategy Analytics’ digital dedia director, foresees. “As online provides increasing ways to access films and box-sets, physical simply can’t compete. Although many people will always prefer a physical disc, retailers will have to decide whether it’s even viable to offer that format in five years’ time. Many won’t and with less high street players around, it will be online, ironically, that keeps DVDs on life support via e-commerce.”
Splitting out online and DVDs into the five main methods of accessing home video, most spending in 2016 will still go on buying DVDs/Blu-ray, but that will drop 16 percent to £905 million, according to Strategy Analytics.
Streaming subscription services, such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, reportedly follow next and are the fastest-growing format, rising 36 percent to £742 million – or £1 in every £3 spent on home video. There are around 4.6 million Netflix households in Britain and 2.5 million with Amazon Prime. Around 20 percent of households who subscribe to a video streaming service, subscribe to at least two.
The research firm predicts video streaming subscriptions in Britain will be the dominant format from 2017 onward and will account for over half of consumer home video spend by the end of 2021.