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Home entertainment market stays resilient

The Australian home entertainment market was worth $1.115 billion last year, down about 8% from $1.202 billion in 2013 according to stats released today.

Physical revenues declined by 10% to $951.3 million from $1.059 billion while online sales and rentals increased by an estimated 11% to a record $163.5 million, according to the Australian Home Entertainment Distributors Association (AHEDA).

DVD and Blu-ray revenues both fell by 10% and Blu-ray penetration is stuck at 16% and isn't growing. The digital market is being driven by EST movies, which jumped by 26% in the year to October.

TV series continue to rank as the largest category in the physical market, slipping by 2%, followed by library movies (off 16%) and new release titles led by Disney’s Frozen (down 7%). Direct-to-video revenues shrank by 19%.

AHEDA CEO Simon Bush said, “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.”

The $163.5 million total is based on sales data for the first 10 months, grossed up for the full year. By contrast, the 2013 total was $143.6 million.

Bush said, “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.”

He added, “AHEDA strongly supports efforts by the Federal Government to combat the high levels of film piracy we see in this country and welcomes efforts to establish a notice scheme as well as injunctive relief mechanisms to block web sites whose primary purpose is to promote piracy.”