• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, August 21, 2020

In another perspective on the streaming video lift driven by the pandemic’s stay-at-home mode, preliminary sales data from the Digital Entertainment Group show total consumer home entertainment spending up 34% in this year’s second quarter and 26% in the first half, on a year-over-year basis.

Overall spending across digital and physical home entertainment formats in the first half reached $8 billion in Q2, and $15.1 billion in the first half (up from $12 billion in first-half 2019), according to DEG’s Mid-Year 2020 Home Entertainment Report, which will be finalized in September.

The report’s data come from the entertainment studios, rather than consumer surveys.

For the first half, total consumer spending on digital formats —including electronic sell through/EST (purchases with unlimited viewing rights), video on demand/VOD (rentals with limited-term viewing rights) and subscription streaming — rose 37%, to $13.3 billion.

Subscription streaming alone also rose 37%.

In Q2, more than $1.5 billion was generated by EST and VOD — up 54% on a year-over-year basis. Within that Q2 total, EST spending soared 57% and VOD 50%.

For the first half, EST and VOD each grew 33%.

Those VOD revenue numbers do not include “premium” VOD — higher-priced rentals of major new releases. Those revenues undoubtedly increased in this year’s first half due to movie-theater closures and early streaming releases including Disney’s “Frozen 2” and Universal’s “Trolls: World Tour.”

However, DEG separately reports that consumer demand for theatrical releases grew across digital formats due to early stream-at-home releases.

Spending on theatrical EST rose 48% in Q2 and 26% in the first half. Spending on theatrical VOD rose 73% in Q2 and 55% in the first half.

Theatrical catalog titles showed particularly strong growth. EST and VOD spending on those titles grew 66% in Q2.

Within the TV category, VOD spending rose 120%, and EST spending rose 72% in Q2.

In addition, internet-delivered VOD grew 76% in Q2 and 56% in the first half, reflecting consumers’ adoption of a growing number of service options, according to DEG.

Even DVDs saw a resurgence. After years of double-digit declines, spending on DVDs was off just 6% year-over-year in Q2.

“Wallet-conscious consumers embraced product with price points below $10, and theatrical catalog offerings under $6 were in especially high demand, posting a 3% YOY growth in Q2,” notes the report.

Top Q2 titles included “Bad Boys for Life,” “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” “Sonic the Hedgehog,” “Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey,” “Jumanji: The Next Level,” “Bloodshot (2020),” “1917,” “Dolittle” and “The Call of the Wild (2020).”