BVA publishes 2014 yearbook

More than 22m people bought a video on DVD or Blu-ray Disc in 2013, according to the 21st edition of the British Video Association’s Yearbook.

That figure compares with 3.3m who subscribed to a VoD service, such as Netflix or Amazon Prime Instant, meaning that 73% of the total £2.24bn video market remains in a physical rather than a digital format.

However, the Yearbook also states that most of Britain’s video viewing is increasingly made up of a combination of disc and digital services to suit today’s lifestyles.

Owning is still king, with 70% of consumers paying to keep and just 30% renting, and 92% of consumers’ expenditure is on physical discs as opposed to digital video.

Blu-ray Disc sales grew 10% in 2013 as sales of jumbo screen TVs also growing, with 50”+ up 21% on 2012.

BVA director general Lavinia Carey commented: “British people have always been passionate about video, be it film, TV, children’s, music, live comedy or sport and fitness. It is testament to video’s massive popular appeal that in a tough economic environment consumer spend in 2013 remained strong and even grew 0.5% year on year.

“The nature of video viewing is changing and our Members are rising to that challenge and working hard with retailers and the wider industry to provide audiences with great content on all the formats possible to suit every taste. This Yearbook provides all the data the industry needs on sales, releases, companies and consumers.”