PORT WASHINGTON, NEW YORK, October 24, 2006 –Over the past decade, the DVD sales category has enjoyed tremendous growth from year to year. More recently, however, overall DVD sales growth has slowed considerably. According to The NPD Group, a leading consumer and retail information company, through June 2006 the DVD business increased unit volume sales by 4 percent over the first half of 2005; but that’s half the rate of growth that NPD saw last year. One of the key reasons DVDs have not slid even further is the continued health of TV programming purchased on DVD. NPD also noted significant growth in the online rental or purchase of digital TV content from Web retailers like Apple iTunes, MovieFlix and CinemaNow.
“Americans remain passionate about their favorite TV programs and that passion is in evidence when they purchase DVDs or download content from the Web,” said Russ Crupnick music and movies analyst for The NPD Group. “Television programming has the ability to create a bond with fans, whether it’s living vicariously through the ladies of Wisteria Lane or reciting ‘Seinfeld’ scenes line by line. It’s that kind of kinship that makes TV programming a foundation of many consumers’ DVD collections.”
Overall TV-DVD accounted for 9 percent of home video sales in June, up from 7 percent the year prior.The strongest growth for the TV-DVD category came from sales of one-hour TV dramas, such as “Desperate Housewives,” “Lost” and “24,” which increased 48 percent year over year. The adult-animation category, which includes “The Family Guy” and “The Simpsons,” rose 36 percent, while sales of science fiction titles increased 34 percent and half-hour comedies grew seven percent.
Downloading TV programs from the Web is becoming more popular with consumers. There was a 39 percent increase in subscription rentals of TV content and a 255 percent increase in TV-title digital video downloads between August 2005 and August 2006. NPD also reports that people who purchased TV titles on DVD were twice as likely as the average consumer to also download digital video content. In fact, 92 percent of consumers who downloaded a video last year, expected to download the same amount or even more this year.
For the year to date ending in August 2006, iTunes was the most popular paid video download site with 67 percent of video downloads. MovieFlix followed with 19 percent and CinemaNow was third with nine percent.
“Improvements in digital delivery will begin to dramatically change the TV-watching landscape, but it might take a few years to become commonplace,” Crupnick said. “Right now it’s a great way to download and catch up with a missed episode, or sample a new program on a network’s site. The key challenge for TV-DVD in the immediate future is having a continued pipeline of new content that appeals to consumers and even more creative packaging of older classic TV shows.”
Source: The information in this release was sourced from NPD VideoWatch, a monthly tracking of consumer purchase, rental and downloading trends in the US, and the VideoWatch Consumption Study, a research report completed in Spring 2006 that measured consumer’s usage and attitudes towards various forms of movie and video entertainment.
About The NPD Group, Inc.
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