The Australian Home Entertainment Distributors Association (AHEDA) released 2014 data that show sales of physical DVDs to continue to far outstrip digital sales. The total home entertainment market (digital and physical discs) generated sales of $1.115 billion in 2014.

While the physical home entertainment market (DVD + Blu-ray discs) saw a decline of 10% the previous year, it still generates sales of $951,330,000, based on GfK retail tracking data and AHEDA analysis. By comparison, digital (VoD and EST) sales, while increasing by 11%, was forecast to reach $163.5 million last year.

The largest category in the physical market is that of TV series, which saw only a small 2% decline in 2014 with new release movies down 7%. Catalogue movies were down 16% and the smallest category, direct-to-video titles, was down 19%.

The Australian 's Michael Bodey attributes the flatness in the sales of TV series last year to the absence of Game of Thrones from Apple's iTunes platform as the impact of key title on the sector remains immense. He notes that physical disc sales of TV series continue to grow, accounting for 36% of DVD sales value in 2014. In line with its success in other territories, Disney's Frozen was the top-selling physical DVD by volume and value last year ahead of The Lego Movie in numbers.

"As the market matures, we are seeing the declines in physical disc sales tapering and the consumer is proving yet again that new and exciting TV and movie content continues to perform well showing why Australian retailers continue to support the category," Simon Bush, AHEDA CEO said. There was no difference between DVD and BD with both categories seeing declines of 10% with Blu-ray penetration sitting at 16%. Blu-ray volume declined for the first time ever.

As for the digital delivery market, the split between VoD and EST in Australia remains around 50% with EST movies showing strongest growth of 26% (January to October data).

"2015 is shaping up to be an exciting year in the continued evolution of the home entertainment marketplace with SVoD service Stan launching last month to join Foxtel's Presto and Quickflix, with Netflix starting in March," Bush said.

Story filed 02.05.15