US 2019 digital media entertainment spending top $25BN
Details
Joseph O'Halloran
| 15 January 2020

Led by subscription streaming, and an annual rise total of 18% on digital formats, digital media entertainment spending in the US leapt 8.4% in 2019 to a record $25.2 billion according to data from the Digital Entertainment Group (DEG).

The Year-End 2019 Digital Media Entertainment Report showed that throughout the year US consumers continued viewing and collecting their favourite films across multiple formats. It also showed that electronic sell through and online video-on-demand (VOD) services also benefited from consumers’ growing embrace of digital transactions.

As well as all of the year being a strong year for the industry, 2019’s fourth quarter showed notable gains increasing revenues year-on-year 9% to $6.8 billion.

In detail, overall electronic sell-through (EST) spending rose 5% for the year. Theatrical EST sales were up more than 7% for the year, offsetting a full year flattening in sales of TV products. In total, spending on digital formats rose 19% for the quarter and 18% for the year. VOD revenue through internet services grew 10% in the fourth quarter and 9% for the year, reflecting said DEG consumers’ continued engagement with VOD, increasingly through internet services. Yet yearly and quarterly VOD sales of 1.958 billion and $479.75 million amounted to annual falls of 6.19% and 7.19% respectively.

Yet by far the star growth performer revealed by the DEG data was subscription streaming which rose 26% in the fourth quarter and 24% for the year. Subscription VOD revenues for Q4 2019 totalled $4.317 billion, soaring 26% on an annual basis and for the year the total leapt an equally impressive 23.7% to 15.898 billion.