Digital video drives UK entertainment market in 2018
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Joseph O'Halloran
| 03 January 2019

Booming streaming services have entered a sixth consecutive year of growth to take the UK entertainment market to another all-time-high of £7.537 billion in 2018, according to preliminary data compiled by the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA).

The report showed that the preliminary entertainment sales totals for the total video market in 2018 amounted to £2.338 billion, up 10.1% on an annual basis. Of this, downloads from Amazon, Apple and Sky Store and streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime and Sky’s NOW TV drove digital revenues up 26% compared with 2017 to total £1.689 billion. Physical retail sales slipped 16.9% on an annual basis to £616.9 million while Physical Rental tumbled 21.7% to £31.7 million.

By contrast, DVD sales were down 23.5% in volume and Blu-ray down 11.9%. In value terms, with revenues of ERA’s report showed that video is now 7.4% above its 2012 low-point, but still well below its historic 2004 high of £2.953 billion.

Yet the analysis also showed that physical formats are still essential to deliver the biggest hits with sales of the Top 20 films to own of the year averaging 74.1% physical and the Top 20 albums of the year averaging 61% physical. The biggest music and video hit of the year, Hollywood musical The Greatest Showman, sold nearly two-thirds of its combined 4.3 million sales on CD, DVD and Blu-ray. The biggest-selling console game of the year, FIFA 19, sold 2.5 million units, around 75% on physical formats.

“On a market level these figures are a stunning testament to the investment and innovation of digital services who have transformed the fortunes of an entertainment industry many had thought was doomed by the internet and piracy,” commented ERA CEO Kim Bayle. “Video was arguably entertainment’s most dynamic sector in 2018. Streaming services have transformed the viewing choices of the British public by offering 24/7 access and convenience. Meanwhile sales figures show the continuing loyalty of video consumers to DVD and Blu-ray, still the default choices for gift-buying and building a video collection.”