Futuresource Consulting, UK, April – Futuresource Consulting has announced the release of the Video Insights series, a collection of market reports that map out and assess the current and future trends across the video entertainment landscape, highlighting latest market trends, challenges and opportunities across Australia, Italy, Russia, Turkey, UK and USA.
Overall Home Video for Italy
The Video Insights reports, which will be released throughout April and May 2015 will provide an invaluable and timely update of the home video entertainment video markets in the spotlight. Each country is researched individually; primary research is carried out with the leading studios, operators and service providers in each market. The reports review the overall video entertainment market in each country, evaluating the evolution of the different video markets and their impact on one another, coverage includes revenues and transactions for packaged home video (sell-through & rental), paid-for digital video (sell-through, rental & subscription), Pay-TV subscription and box office, all supported by analyst commentary, assumptions and insights.
2014 was a mixed year for the packaged sell-through video market, with most markets performing approximately in line with expectations. DVD showed resilience in a number of markets; whilst it remains clear few DVD buyers are now transitioning to Blu-ray. The retail environment remains difficult, but in the UK and Ireland, the resurgence of HMV after streamlining has provided a much needed boost to the packaged markets, whilst also proving that there remains a role for dedicated retailers in these markets, if positioned correctly.
2015 is expected to witness a marginally worse rate of decline in most countries when compared to 2014, as the continued steady uptake of digital video and the gradual shift in many consumers mentality from ownership, to access, continues.
Transactional digital video uptake remains patchy worldwide, EST is starting to realise some of its potential in the USA and UK, although in other markets, the sector remains relatively insignificant when compared to packaged sell-through.
SVoD continues to drive premium online video viewing in many markets, with Netflix expected to continue to lead the charge with the recent launch in Australia and new launches in Italy and Japan planned for later this year.
Despite some markets continuing to be impacted by political and economic uncertainty across different markets, the video entertainment landscape will flourish throughout 2015, fuelled predominantly by the rapidly growing Pay-TV segment and increasingly digital savvy and content hungry consumer.
“Within home entertainment, 2015 will represent the first year that digital revenue will outperform that of legacy packaged media in some countries,” commented David Sidebottom, Senior Market Analyst, Futuresource Consulting. “This is due to the rise in popularity of online video services such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon and local operators Blinkbox, Okko, Presto, Stan and Chili at the same time as steady erosion of consumer demand for DVD and Blu-ray. The ability to access these premium on-demand services on a TV has also been a key catalyst to growth.”
Sidebottom continued to say “OTT and Pay-TV will flourish throughout 2015 due to greater availability of services and growing penetration of connected hardware, further helped by the improving broadband infrastructure in most major markets.”
The Video Insight series covers five year forecasts for packaged video and paid-for digital video (Electronic Sell-Through, Subscription Video on Demand and Video on Demand – via online or Pay-TV), Pay-TV and box office as well as the features and footprint of key premium online services and Pay-TV operators.
Other countries featured in the Video Insights series include: Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain and Sweden.