Netflix Drives Belgian Digital Revenue Past Physical

18 May, 2015 By: Erik Gruenwedel

Netflix launched subscription streaming service in Belgium last September — a move that helped drive for the first time consumer spending on digital home entertainment in 2014 past packaged media, according to the Belgian Entertainment Association.

Consumer spending on transactional video-on-demand, electronic sellthrough and SVOD increased 16% to €130 million ($147 million), while spending on discs fell 18% to €115 million ($130 million).

Specifically, Belgians purchased almost 1.3 million Blu-ray Disc titles and more than 7.6 million DVDs — down 10% and 24%, respectively. Discs still accounted for 47% of consumer spending.

The BEA attributed disc declines to the closure of select packaged-media retailers, distributors and the arrival of Netflix, among other services. Notably, while digital spending is increasing, total home entertainment spending shrank more than 4% to more than €245 million ($277 million).

And it could shrink further. Global subscriptions to Netflix and Amazon Prime Instant Video are projected to top 332 million by 2019, up from 92 million in 2014, according to Juniper Research.