US consumers continued expanding their digital collections of movies and television shows in the third quarter of 2014 with electronic purchases soaring at double-digit rates compared to the year earlier period, according to DEG's Third Quarter 2014 Home Entertainment Report. Overall, total spending in all home entertainment categories during the quarter was flat compared to a year earlier, underscoring the industry's ongoing stability.

Highlights for the quarter include:

- The overall consumer spending was flat for the third quarter compared to the same period last year, signaling stability in the market.

- Overall EST spending rose 26% in the quarter versus the same period last year. For the first nine months of 2014, EST cumulatively is up 33% versus the same period of 2013.

- In third quarter of 2014, spending on EST for new theatrical releases climbed 70% over the same period in 2013. Year to date, EST spending on new releases is up a massive 88%.

- SVOD was up 26% from a year earlier in both the third quarter of 2014 and in the first nine months of the year.

- The number of Blu-ray homes continues to grow, with total household penetration of all Blu-ray compatible devices (including BD set-tops, PS3s and HTiBs) now at nearly 80 million US homes.

- Consumers purchased more than 21 million HDTVs in 2013. HDTV penetration is now at more than 104 million US households.

- There are more than 20 million UltraViolet accounts with more than 100 million movies and television shows in their UltraViolet libraries.

Story filed 31.12.14