The year 2021 ended with a 13.3% increase in the home entertainment market to 3.75 billion pounds (the equivalent of 4.5 billion euros). Despite the few blockbusters released in theaters, the British market is showing good growth, mainly thanks to a particularly dynamic SVOD market. We are a long way from the 38% increase in 2020 which allowed the market to reach 3.28 billion pounds in revenue.
The United Kingdom, SVOD champions
This is no surprise, our British neighbors love SVOD and it shows in the 2021 figures. SVOD achieves 3.17 billion pounds in revenue compared to 2.45 billion pounds in 2020, which allows SVOD to secure nearly 85% of the total market on its own. According to Kantar figures, growth in SVOD subscriptions slowed in 2021, still increasing by 27% year-on-year, but down from the peak of 44% in 2020. 16 million of the 27 million UK households owned at least one SVOD account in the fall, the average number of subscriptions per household remaining at the 2020 level with 2.3 services per household.
TVOD and EST suffered
Unlike SVOD, TVOD and EST are very sensitive to theatrical outputs. With a mixed year 2021, we should not expect to see records fall. TVOD represents 3.2% of the market at 120 million pounds, down 37 million pounds year on year. EST stood at 5.7% of the market and 210 million pounds against 302 million pounds in 2020. EST ended the year with 17.7 million transactions and TVOD 27 million rental deeds for the first 9 months of the year. BASE says Wonder Woman 84 topped the rentals from January to September following its PVOD release in January. BASE also indicates that 48 titles were released in PVOD and EST Premium in 2021.
The physical market in darkness
According to the Official Charts Company, 21 million DVDs and Blu-rays were sold in 2021. This figure should be compared with the 34.1 million physical sales made in 2020, a decrease which can be explained in part by the lack of films available due to theatrical closures, but also a testament to the continued transition of the physical entertainment industry to online entertainment. DVD weighs 6.3% of the market and 240 million pounds (against 356 million in 2020) and physical rental only weighs 11 million pounds against 17 million in 2020.
The new streaming equation
By accounting for 93.3% of home entertainment revenue, streaming has taken hold in British homes. BASE writes in its annual press release: “Screen-to-screen entertainment is the new normal, where the multiple formats of the small screen are fueled by the big screen experience in a supporting partnership, and where the oxygen for both remains the same: the audience and their love of entertainment. “
Thank you 007
“No Time To Die” became the best-selling home entertainment title of 2021 over the last two weeks of the year, with sales of 1.15 million units on DVD, Blu-ray and DVD. numerical format.