NPD: More People Watch Discs Than subscription video on demand (1 Viewer)

[Kevin Collins]

I found this post from NPD to be fairly interesting...

Regardless of all the hype with subscription video on demand (i.e. Hulu, Netflix, Amazon) more people watch movies and TV shows on DVD and Blu-ray Disc. The number of consumers renting discs at kiosks and video stores is identical to the number of people watching on a subscription video-on-demand services, according to new data from The NPD Group.

NPD goes on to say that it's twice as likely that you'll be watching a TV series from a disc than it is that you'll watch the series using the most popular VOD options of subscription or free streaming. Pretty soon one in three Americans will have a Netflix subscription. In the past 12 months, 44 percent of consumers purchased a movie on DVD or Blu-ray. Compare that to the numbers who are using VOD to rent or own. Again, it's not a "disc good, digital bad" conversation, but a recognition that the consumer has yet to catch up with where distributors, services, and retailers want them to be.

I don't know if I believe that or not. NPD is a well recognized analyst firm, so I guess there is no choice but to believe it, but it still seems odd given that overall disc sales have slowed. I also wonder if "purchased a movie on DVD or Blu-ray" includes renting?

Below are some stats on how consumers are watching movies/TV shows and what methods they are renting them by.

 

[schan1269]

This entire NPD research is hamstrung. There is zero chance for the market to go 100% streamed. Granted I'm a fringe viewer...1. Prefer the "correct version" of a movie. ..Cinema Paradiso being an example. Does any stream provider have anything but the short version?2. Watch a ton of odd/obscure foreign cinema. I "had to buy" The Wayward Cloud because I wasn't going to pay Netflix extra money to borrow the DVD in the mail.

 

[Towergrove]

Kevin you mention overall disc sales have slowed but they are not plummeting as many would lead us to believe. Sales have leveled out over the past few qtrs so I do believe what this report is telling us.

 

[MattPriceTime]

The first two are hardly surprising.

What i find more surprising is how far the digital sales are behind. But again this is probably why the individual companies can put as many conditions and strings on them in the first place. With a lot of people not ready for them, they don't have to streamline it yet. I imagine the future will have a primary digital world, with physical in limited form (like our current music industry). And then one day they switch over completely. Honestly i would have thought that more people were going digital but it seems like not many are yet.

But with numbers like that it's pretty clear. The majority want to own on physical (with a small periphery on digitally) and the one-and-done and samplers are happy with their streaming and renting services.