Aussie Home Entertainment Revenue Dropped 8% in 2014

2 Feb, 2015 By: Erik Gruenwedel

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Digital sales and rental grew 11% to $163.5 million — just 17% of spending on packaged media

Consumer home entertainment spending in Australia fell 8% to $1.1 billion ($858 million U.S.) in 2014, from $1.2 billion ($936 million) in 2013, according to new data from the Australian Home Entertainment Distributors Association.

While sales of DVD and Blu-ray Disc content declined 10% to $951.3 million ($742 million), consumers spent nearly five times more on packaged media than digital. Digital sales and rental grew 11% to $163.5 million ($127 million), driven in part by a 26% uptick in digital movie sales.

“As the market matures, we are seeing the declines in physical disc sales tapering and the consumer is proving yet again that new and exciting TV and movie content continues to perform well, showing why Australian retailers continue to support the category,” Simon Bush, CEO of AHEDA, said in a statement.

Indeed, sales of direct-to-video movies fell 19%, followed by catalog movies (down 16%), new releases (down 7%) and TV content (down 2%).

Top selling discs included (in order): Disney’s Frozen; The Lego Movie, Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, (Warner Bros.); The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (Lionsgate); Game of Thrones: Season 3 (HBO); Guardians of the Galaxy, Thor: The Dark World (Disney); Gravity (Warner); How to Train Your Dragon 2 (20th Century Fox); Transformers: Age of Extinction (Paramount).

“2015 is shaping up to be an exciting year in the continued evolution of the home entertainment marketplace with SVOD service Stan launching last month to join Foxtel’s Presto and Quickflix, with Netflix starting in March,” Bush said.
 

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