Home Entertainment Mantra in 2017: ‘Just Keep Swimming’

At this year’s Video Hall of Fame ceremony in Beverly Hills in December, Janice Marinelli, president, Disney/ABC Home Entertainment & Television Distribution, for The Walt Disney Studios, drew solid applause when she advised her fellow home entertainment executives to “just keep swimming.”

The line, from the hit Disney film “Finding Nemo,” seemed to resonate with the several hundred execs in the room, many of whom have been contending with increasingly choppy seas for the better part of a decade.

In fact, 2017 marked the 10th anniversary of Netflix’s decision to transition its subscription approach from disc rentals by mail to digitally delivering content over the Internet – a truly disruptive moment that shattered the traditional home video model. Year after year, disc sales plummeted as consumers planted themselves on their sofas for a nightly steam of at first studio discards and then an increasingly compelling menu of original programming.

In the first nine months of this year, numbers provided by DEG: The Digital Entertainment Group show, more than 40% of the money consumers spent on home entertainment in the first nine months of 2017 was generated by Netflix and other subscription streaming services, up from 34% in 2016 and 29% in 2015.
Sales of Blu-ray Discs and DVDs, meanwhile, accounted for 24% of consumer home entertainment spending in the first nine months of 2017, down from 27% in the comparable period in 2016 and 31% in 2015.

In the first nine months of 2011, by contrast, streaming accounted for just 3.8% of the home entertainment business, with disc sales accounting for 46%, or $5.6 billion – compared to $3.26 billion in the first nine months of 2017.

“The [disc sales] business remains under pressure, due to the growing number of entertainment options,” says Eddie Cunningham, president of Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. “Nonetheless, studios and retailers continue to aggressively champion the category, looking to create the most compelling and meaningful opportunities to eventize our disc products and deliver the best, most exciting shopping experience possible.”

“Physical media continues to be an integral component of the product mix, but we need to find ways to remind consumers of the value of owning and renting discs,” adds Mark Fisher, president and CEO of the Entertainment Merchants Association.

Through it all, home entertainment executives have, well, just kept on swimming – and managed to keep their heads afloat through a steady string of technological advances and innovation. This year’s gold star goes to Movies Anywhere, the Walt Disney-owned digital movie service that allows consumers to buy newly released movies electronically (or redeem access codes packaged inside Blu-ray Discs) and watch them whenever they want to, on any screen, from the family room TV to their iPhone.

Hollywood also has a seat at the burgeoning Ultra HD table with Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc, which experts agree is the optimum way to view 4K content, with even sharper pictures and more realistic colors than standard high-definition.

As Netflix and its OTT compadres continue to grab market share, studio executives – who still consider movie sales, either on disc or electronically, as their holy grail – also have had to contend with other challenges. Distribution channels have continued to proliferate, and the concept of content continues to evolve as millennials are as quick to spend an evening watching their favorite YouTuber or anime webisodes as they are the new Spider-Man movie.

Electronic sellthrough – also known as Digital HD – remains the most promising bulwark the studios have against continued double-digit OTT growth, but challenges remain. Consumers accustomed to spending around $10 a month for unlimited Netflix viewing might be reluctant to spend the same amount, or more, for a single piece of entertainment, even if they own it.

EST growth slowed from several years of double-digit gains to 7% in 2016, then rose slightly to 8% in the first nine months of this year. Executives hope Movies Anywhere will be the catalyst to reignite higher growth.

“On the EST front, we continue to see product, marketing and merchandising investments across the industry accelerate,” says Michael Bonner, EVP, Digital Distribution, for Universal Pictures Home Entertainment. “Movies Anywhere is just the latest example of studios and distributors working together to provide more value to the consumer and setting a new bar for digital movie ownership.”

Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc also is seen as a growth driver, particularly as the number of UHD TVs continues to mushroom.

“2017 was the year 4K UHD really took off,” said Jim Wuthrich, president, The Americas and Global Strategy, at Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. “With $200 million in global consumer sales, ample physical and digital distribution and accelerating penetration of capable TVs, content sales will continue to soar into 2018.”

“2017 was a year where we saw 4K HDR make huge strides towards becoming a mainstream part of the industry,” adds Jason Spivak, EVP, Worldwide Digital Distribution and North America Sales, for Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. “The format is essential to our commitment to deliver the highest caliber consumer experience, and it is well on its way to mass acceptance.”

“The number of 4K devices continues to grow, and is forecasted to triple in the next five years to nearly 350 million,” said Bob Buchi, president, Worldwide Home Media Distribution, for Paramount Pictures. “That clearly indicates that consumers have an appetite for the format, but we have to ensure that we don’t have a content gap. At Paramount, we are committed to releasing the vast majority of new releases in 4K and have greenlit dozens of catalog titles for the format.”

Driving ownership of content, both physical and digital, is critical as the industry moves forward, executives agree.

“We continue to employ the most innovative and comprehensive tactics to drive ownership across both physical and digital platforms,” said Disney’s Marinelli. “We’ve had tremendous success implementing a number of strategic initiatives including pre-sale promotions, improving retail placement, expanding our social presence, producing live events and creating promotional partnerships. We are also committed to creating a superior in-home viewing experience that extends the consumer experience and deepens engagement.”

Looking ahead to 2018, the prognosis among studios is essentially the same as it’s been at the end of the last few years – guarded optimism and a continued belief in the sales model.

Consumers’ appetite for home entertainment content remains remarkably robust,” says Universal Pictures’ Eddie Cunningham. “Our research shows that a vast percentage of households continue to engage in the category whether via disc, digital or both. Though there are many entertainment choices to distract consumers, offering tangible benefits unique to the format such as exceptional value, accessibility and utility of their favorite movies and TV shows reinforces the distinct advantages of ownership that you can’t get when renting or streaming.”

The home entertainment industry “remains at the intersection of compelling content and technology, stemming from our consumers’ constant need for new and exciting experiences,” said Keith Feldman, President, Worldwide Home Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox.

“Technology is moving at a rapid pace and we must evolve our content offerings to meet consumer expectations, which means delivering on next-generation technologies including 4K HDR, 5G and mobile content delivery, simple and functional solutions like Movies Anywhere and immersive experiences like virtual and augmented reality that accurately realize and extend the vision of our filmmakers.”

Thomas K. Arnold is Editorial Director of Home Media Magazine.

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