U.S. consumers spent more than $26.5 billion on SVOD subscriptions and buying and renting movies and TV shows in 2020, up 32% over 2019, according to the Digital Entertainment Group.
DEG, which gets its data from content suppliers, said total home entertainment revenue from all formats, including everything from Netflix to DVDs, surpassed $30 billion last year.
DEG’s numbers used to be driven by disc sales and rentals. But sales of DVDs and Blu-rays declined another 26% in 2020 to just under $2.5 billion, while rentals dropped another 27% to $1.04 billion.
The big home entertainment driver these days, of course, is subscription video on demand. Culling data from Informa, DEG said SVOD services including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Disney Plus and HBO Max, generated more than $26.5 billion in 2020 in the U.S., an increase of 32.6%.
With digital sales of movies spiking 16% to nearly $3 billion, and VOD rentals up over 18.3% to $2.3 billion, total spending on digital video reached its zenith in the U.S. last year.
It was the first time the “transaction” portion of the video business has grown in more than a decade, DEG said.
DEG's numbers don't include revenue generated by ad-supported video-on-demand services such as Amazon Freevee, Pluto TV and Tubi.
Also notable: DEG said Disney’s Frozen 2 was the most consumed movie in U.S. homes in 2020, followed by Jumanji: The Next Level and Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker. ▪️
