More and more consumers are moving on from physical discs to streaming and digital, according to new figures from DEG (Digital Entertainment Group) that imply sales of the former fell substantially last year. Sales of UHD Blu-ray discs were up 15% in the fourth quarter thanks to releases that include Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, however.
Physical sales:
- YTD 2022: $2,085.22
- YTD 2023: $1,557.28
- Difference: -25.23%
2023 year-end home entertainment spending, including digital:
January/February 4K UHD releases include:
- The Raid: Redemption
- Lone Star
- Conan the Barbarian
- Conan the Destroyer
- Silent Night
- The Marvels
- Darkman
- Leviathan
- Contagion
DEG notes:
- U.S. consumer spending on subscription streaming rose above $10.1 billion in fourth quarter 2023, with robust growth of almost 25 percent.
- Consumer spending on digital purchases (EST) in premium and standard windows continued to grow in the fourth quarter, with purchases rising 7 percent overall and more than 30 percent for theatrical titles, driven by strong home demand for some of the year’s biggest box-office performers, including Barbie, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part 1, Oppenheimer, and The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Spending on digital purchases of theatrical titles was up more than 13 percent for the full year.
- The title slate also drove growth in digital rentals during the final quarter of the year, with overall consumer spending up 11.5 percent and theatrical title spending up 15 percent. Growth in digital rentals (VOD) is also reflective of continued cord-cutting and changing consumer behavior: Internet-delivered rentals were up 18 percent while cable/satellite rentals fell almost 20 percent.
- The strong quarterly performance in theatrical new releases also benefited premium physical formats, with spending on purchases of 4K UHD Blu-ray titles up 15 percent for the quarter. Fans seeking to watch Oppenheimer at home in the best picture quality possible reportedly drove retail shortages of the title.
- Spending on physical disc rental fell by more than 50 percent in the fourth quarter, following Netflix’s September exit from the physical subscription business. As a result of this physical rental sector shrinkage, DEG reports going forward in 2024 will tally only sell-through of physical disc product.
- Among the full year’s best-performing titles across all transactional formats, were Avatar: The Way of Water (Disney), Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (Paramount), Equalizer 3 (Sony), The Flash (WBD), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (Disney), John Wick: Chapter 4 (Lionsgate), Meg 2: The Trench (WBD), Plane (Lionsgate), Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (Universal), Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Sony), The Super Mario Bros. Movie (Universal), and Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (Paramount).
- Ad-supported premium AVOD and FAST content reached an estimated advertising revenue of $17.2 billion in 2023 according to estimates from Omdia, as more major streamers diversified their offerings to include lower cost subscription plans with ads. Omdia estimates show ad revenue grew by more than 10 percent for the full year.
Join the discussion in The FPS Review Forums...
Discussion (9 replies)
Join Discussion →
In other news... Water is still Wet. Just wait for the advertisements to accumulate and we might see a rebound of physical media sales.
I still buy physical media for the things I really care about but have otherwise thrown in the towel for any hope that its demise isn't far off. I'm guessing within ten years or so. I want to be wrong about this though.
About the only thing I could see that might change this is if the powers that be find a different medium that's cost-effective enough, and as universally supported as the optical media has been, with the storage capacity that's needed. Flash, NAND, etc., something. We seem to have no problem with file formats but a low-cost storage solution is an issue. I know some experiments have been tried but it's never really been pushed and it doesn't appear that it will be any time soon.
"Peter_Brosdahl, post: 82206, member: 87" wrote:I still buy physical media for the things I really care about
Same here for the most part, also comes in handy in the rare occasions the internet goes down (or even rarer, the power)
DVD/Bluray sales will get hot once they become “retro” enough.
They are a dying breed now though. Streaming killed it just as sure as DVDs killed off VHS
"Brian_B, post: 82219, member: 96" wrote:DVD/Bluray sales will get hot once they become “retro” enough.
They are a dying breed now though. Streaming killed it just as sure as DVDs killed off VHS
The problem is the quality of streaming doesn't = blue ray or in some cases DVD.
Not to mention that streaming companies have shown they can and WILL just turn off features of streaming content as they see fit.
It's almost as if movies are magically falling out of the clouds and landing in our TVs :) /s
I have picked up physical 4K UHD of things I really care about, but for 95% of the random crap streaming is fine. I ripped 90% of my physical stuff to the server long ago and got rid of most of the discs. Still have way too many though.
"Denpepe, post: 82214, member: 284" wrote:...also comes in handy in the rare occasions the internet goes down (or even rarer, the power)
When I switched from Comcast to Verizon, Internet outages mostly became a thing of the past (whereas before they were a regular occurrence). But the power going out, shiiiiat all it takes is some decent rain and some mildly strong wind to knock the power out for a few days. Can't live without a UPS in my area. I sorely wish power outages were rare.
"Brian_B, post: 82219, member: 96" wrote:Streaming killed it just as sure as DVDs killed off VHS
DVD killing off VHS made sense, cuz aside from local recording, it was literally superior in every way. Streaming is NOT superior to using local media in any way at all.
"Grimlakin, post: 82226, member: 215" wrote:The problem is the quality of streaming doesn't = blue ray or in some cases DVD.
Exactly.
"DrezKill, post: 82269, member: 230" wrote:DVD killing off VHS made sense, cuz aside from local recording, it was literally superior in every way. Streaming is NOT superior to using local media in any way at all.
You aren’t wrong but it really had very little to do with quality. It’s all about convenience.
DVDs didn’t need to be rewound, and streaming you don’t even have to get up and change the disc (or worry about peanut butter fingers)
Discussion (9 replies)
Join Discussion →In other news... Water is still Wet. Just wait for the advertisements to accumulate and we might see a rebound of physical media sales.
I still buy physical media for the things I really care about but have otherwise thrown in the towel for any hope that its demise isn't far off. I'm guessing within ten years or so. I want to be wrong about this though.
About the only thing I could see that might change this is if the powers that be find a different medium that's cost-effective enough, and as universally supported as the optical media has been, with the storage capacity that's needed. Flash, NAND, etc., something. We seem to have no problem with file formats but a low-cost storage solution is an issue. I know some experiments have been tried but it's never really been pushed and it doesn't appear that it will be any time soon.
Same here for the most part, also comes in handy in the rare occasions the internet goes down (or even rarer, the power)
DVD/Bluray sales will get hot once they become “retro” enough.
They are a dying breed now though. Streaming killed it just as sure as DVDs killed off VHS
The problem is the quality of streaming doesn't = blue ray or in some cases DVD.
Not to mention that streaming companies have shown they can and WILL just turn off features of streaming content as they see fit.
It's almost as if movies are magically falling out of the clouds and landing in our TVs :) /s
I have picked up physical 4K UHD of things I really care about, but for 95% of the random crap streaming is fine. I ripped 90% of my physical stuff to the server long ago and got rid of most of the discs. Still have way too many though.
When I switched from Comcast to Verizon, Internet outages mostly became a thing of the past (whereas before they were a regular occurrence). But the power going out, shiiiiat all it takes is some decent rain and some mildly strong wind to knock the power out for a few days. Can't live without a UPS in my area. I sorely wish power outages were rare.
DVD killing off VHS made sense, cuz aside from local recording, it was literally superior in every way. Streaming is NOT superior to using local media in any way at all.
Exactly.
You aren’t wrong but it really had very little to do with quality. It’s all about convenience.
DVDs didn’t need to be rewound, and streaming you don’t even have to get up and change the disc (or worry about peanut butter fingers)