Home entertainment sales on DVD, Blu-ray are off 19%

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Consumer purchases of newly released DVDs fell precipitously in the first three months of the year -- declines that were not made up by gains in sales of Blu-ray discs or emerging streaming services.

Digital Entertainment Group reported Monday that overall spending on home entertainment fell to $4.2 billion, down 9.8% from the same period a year earlier. Hardest hit were new-movie purchases, which fell 19% for the first quarter compared with a year ago, when four major blockbuster films were released on DVD and Blu-ray disc.

Physical and digital sales amounted to $2.2 billion for the period, off markedly from $2.7 billion a year ago. Blu-ray disc purchases were up 10% from a year ago, but these sales were not enough to make up for falling DVD sales.

The movie-rental market -- which includes not only traditional chain stores, but also streaming services such as Netflix Inc. and kiosk services such as Redbox -- made modest gains for the quarter. Total consumer spending on home movie rentals rose 2.5% to nearly $2 billion. Big gains in physical and digital subscription services offset declines at retail stores.

Emerging digital services that allow consumers to purchase a movie by way of Apple Inc.’s iTunes store or receive movies on demand were up a total of 8% for the quarter to $614 million.

-- Dawn C. Chmielewski