Retailers Embrace Digital Delivery

The Entertainment Merchants Association (EMA) announced that it has published the 2013 edition of its annual D2 Report: Discs & Digital – The Business of Home Entertainment Retailing.

For more information visit: www.entmerch.org


Unedited press release follows:

Even In The Digital World, Retail Remains At The Core Of Home Entertainment Delivery

Report Also Finds Streaming Retailers Becoming Content Producers

ENCINO, CA (June 18, 2013) … Rather than hunkering down in their brick and mortar stores, traditional retailers are transitioning from their established role of selling and renting packaged DVDs, Blu-ray Discs, and video and computer games by embracing digital delivery, according to a report issued today. The D2 Report: Discs & Digital – The Business of Home Entertainment Retailing finds traditional retailers joining other established and emerging Internet-only retailers by engaging in streaming, video-on-demand, and electronic sell-through and assisting consumers in migrating their DVD and Blu-ray Disc collections to cloud-based Ultraviolet accounts.

The D2 Report: Discs & Digital – The Business of Home Entertainment Retailing was prepared and released by the Entertainment Merchants Association (EMA).

“Retailing is retailing, regardless of the delivery channel,” noted EMA President & CEO Mark Fisher. “Traditional retailers know how to merchandise products, engage the consumer, and generate sales. Internet-based retailers have figured how to do the same in the digital environment with new technologies and strategies. Home entertainment retailing today is defined by the confluence of these two vibrant channels.”

The report also notes the growing trend of streaming retailers, such as Amazon, Netflix, and Hulu, developing their own original content.

Other notable findings include that Blu-ray Disc sales increased nearly 10% in 2012, even though the average price paid by consumers for a Blu-ray title declined to $19.97 per unit, and that spending on digital video game formats (full game and add-ons, subscriptions, mobile, and social network) increased 16% last year.

The D2 Report: Discs & Digital – The Business of Home Entertainment Retailing brings together data from leading home video and video game industry analysts and identifies and discusses important current trends in the industry and puts them in historical perspective. Organizations and companies contributing data to the report include Digital Entertainment Group, Frank N. Magid Associates, iHS Electronics and Media, The Nielsen Company, The NPD Group, Parks Associates, and Rentrak.

The report may be purchased from the Entertainment Merchants Association online at www.EntertainmentMerchantsAssociation.org or by phone at 818-385-1500.