EMA 2008 report: lots of interesting data!

[Grubert]

http://www.entmerch.org/annual_reports.html
http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/38213/113/

Highlights:

Hardware

HDTV sales rose to 20.7 million units in 2007, bringing the total installed base to 46.4 million in the U.S. (34% of households). The EMA noted that only 44% of those who own a HDTV actually watch HD programming and 22% believe to watch HD programming, while they in fact do not. The HDTV installed base is still well behind the total installed base of TVs, which was 112.4 million at the end of 2007.

Over the course of the year, 33 million DVD players were sold, bringing the total to 87.3 million console DVD players in the U.S. in 2007. There were also 48.5 million PC DVD players, 29.5 million DVD players in video game systems, 27.2 million portable DVD players and 25.2 million DVRs. 60% of DVD owners are estimated to have more than one DVD player. Almost 4.5 million HD players were sold in 2006 and 2007 in the U.S.

Microsoft sold 316,000 HD DVD add-ons for the Xbox 360.

U.S. PS3 sales were close to 3 million by the end at 2007, and 87% of PS3 owners said they watch Blu-ray movies on their console. The EMA believes that the PS3 will remain the main force behind Blu-ray disc sales until 2009, when standalone Blu-ray players are expected to outpace the sales volume of the PS3. Market research indicates that 100 – 130 million homes worldwide will own at least one Blu-ray player by 2012.

Annual sales of all Blu-ray devices are expected to reach 57.4 million units by that time. The largest market will be Europe with 26.4 million, followed by the U.S. with 22.6 million and Japan with 8.4 million, according to the EMA.



Software

According to the EMA, 49% of our movie budget goes to home video, 25% cable TV, 23% to the box office and 3% to on-demand content.

Consumers spent $24.1 billion on home videos in 2007 ($16.5 billion in buy-to-own and 8.2 billion in rentals), which is down from $24.7 billion last year and down from a peak of $25.5 billion in 2004. The EMA believes that this trend will continue for some years with revenues declining to $23.6 billion in 2008 and $23.3 billion in 2009.

It is estimated that, in 2012, sales of Blu-ray Discs will exceed those of standard DVDs and will generate sales of $9.5 billion. Home video spending is projected to increase to $25.6 billion in 2012.

A total of 12,177 DVDs (including HD media, and all types of content, including TV shows) were released in 2007, which is down from 13,637 in 2006.

300 movies were released on Blu-ray, while 234 movies became available on HD DVD. The EMA said that 800 different titles were available on either HD DVD or Blu-ray at the end of 2007.

Nearly nine million high-def discs were sold during the year, raking in revenues of $260 million. Blu-ray discs accounted for 67% (about $170 million) of all high-def disc sales (40% in 2006), despite the fact that these movies were more expensive than HD DVD titles. According to the EMA, the average Blu-ray title was priced at $33.03, while HD DVD movies cost an average of $31.77. Contrary to common belief, these prices were not much higher than new theatrical releases on DVD, which were priced at an average of $27.13, the EMA said.

Digital delivery of movies is still a minor factor in the equation and hit $1 billion for video-on-demand and pay-per-view programming delivered via Internet, cable and satellite seems paltry. $123 million were spent on Internet downloads.

Interesting note: the average gamer is much older than most may think – 33 years. The EMA said that 48% of gamers are 18-49 years of age, 28% 18 years or younger and 24% are older than 50.