While Electronic Sell-Through (EST) continues to experience double-digit growth, it still only comprises one-tenth of all transactional home entertainment revenue. It comes in behind Blu-ray discs, kiosk rentals, and transactional VOD, notes in his blog Justin Bailey, Industry Analyst Director at the NPD Group.

Bailey is looking at which consumers should be targeted in order to drive EST growth. Is it better to try to drive up the buy rate of those already buying EST, and convert them to "digital-only" buyers? Or should the focus be on creating new EST buyers by converting physical-only buyers over to digital?

Data from Wave 2 of NPD's Digital Video Adoption Monitor looks at how well people adopt digital video once they enter into a digital ecosystem. For example, once people sign up for UltraViolet, do they adopt digital behaviors, or do they continue buying and renting on disc?

The NPD research suggests the consumers least likely to use UltraViolet are those who were already part of an alternative digital ecosystem such as iTunes or Amazon. However, 49% of those registered for UV have made an EST movie or TV purchase in the past year, compared to 11% of the US population.

"Not only are UV users more likely to buy EST, but just over half of those who had never made an EST purchase prior to signing up for UV have since made a digital purchase," writes Bailey. "It appears those who sign up in order to redeem a Blu-ray or DVD code are discovering EST via retailers and then, in some cases, choosing to buy digitally rather than on disc."

In fact, one quarter (25%) of all purchases made by EST buyers who are UV users are EST transactions, compared to only 15% of the US population of EST buyers.

Over the last 12 months, UV users who are EST buyers purchase on average 8.2 EST movies compared to 3.6 purchases by EST buyers in the general population.

Story filed 13.08.14