Home Entertainment Sales Drop for Sixth Straight Year

 

For the sixth straight year, home entertainment revenue has slid as surging interest in digital distribution and Blu-ray disks failed to make up for dropping DVD sales and rentals.   The industry brought in $18.8 billion in the U.S. in 2010, down from $19.4 billion the year earlier, according to data released Thursday by the Digital Entertainment Group.   The peak year for the industry came in 2004, when revenue was at $21.8 billion, with $4.4 billion coming from VHS. But VHS quickly faded after that, bringing in zero revenue in 2009, and consumers began dabbling with digital distribution. A next-generation DVD format war also didn’t help matters, and the industry has been declining every year since 2004.   Nevertheless, the DEG, headed by Warner Home Video president Ron Sanders, stressed that Blu-ray players are now in 27.5 million American homes and sales and rental of software surged 53% to $2.3 billion.   Also rising were digital sales and rentals, up 19% to $2.5 billion. VOD brought in $1.8 billion of that, up 20.8 percent for the year, while broadband EST grew 15.7 percent to $683 million. Digital has never lagged Blu-ray, but the gap between them is narrower than it has ever been.   DVD sales and rental revenue fell 11% to $14 billion.