LOS ANGELES—The Digital Entertainment Group (DEG) has released new data showing that many pandemic trends continued in the first half of this year, with spending on streaming showing no signs of subscription fatigue.
Consumer spending on subscription streaming rose almost 17% to $6.3 billion for the second quarter, and by 21% to $12.2 billion in the first six months of 2021 according to DEG, a home entertainment trade group backed by the Hollywood studios and major movie and TV content producers.
The increase is particularly notable given the large increases in spending in streaming services that occurred in 2020 during the pandemic lockdowns.
Overall consumers spent $15.7 billion on movies and television shows consumed at home and on the go in the first six months of 2021. For the full first half, spending rose 5% from the $14.9 billion consumers spent in the first six months of 2020, which was a record-breaking period for home viewing as consumers limited out-of-home activity in response to the spread of the novel coronavirus. Second quarter growth year-over-year was 1%, for a total of $7.9 billion.
When compared against the comparable pre-pandemic period in 2019, total U.S. home entertainment spending in 2021 shows growth of more than 35% for the second quarter and 32% for the first half, demonstrating consumers’ continued strong engagement with content, DEG reported. Internet-delivered video-on-demand (VOD) rentals grew 24% in the first half of 2021, compared to the same period in 2019.
The group also noted that the rise of premium channels for new films probably produced another $1 billion in revenue that was not captured by their data.
However, the theatrical box office was down 85% in the first half of 2021 compared to 2020 and the lack of new releases hurt electronic sell-through (EST), which was down 29% from 2019 pre-pandemic levels.
More data and the full presentation at the DEG Expo can be found here.
