The market for physical carriers is still growing in Germany with DVD sales up 6% and Blu-ray discs up 33%.
Meanwhile, just 1% of the €1.8 billion video entertainment turnover during 2013 was for S-VOD services. Physical carriers still account for 90% of the market with 83% for sell-thru.
And it is not just video that Germans want to own – half of the music market is still in CDs.
These remarkable figures were presented by Andreas Bork of Sony Pictures Entertainment during a lunch session organised by The Brain Behind during this year’s ANGA COM.
“Germany is very conservative and people are still buying, they want to own,” he said. So, in line with worldwide trends, also in Germany the number of rental stores is fast dwindling. “It looks like the physical market is here to stay. At least for the time being.
According to Bork, this makes the country an ideal market for UltraViolet, the cloud service backed by a number – but not all – studios. The service was launched in September 2013 and more than 100,000 accounts were established. However, the number of available titles appear to be very limited.
In the US, UV now has over 10,600 titles of which 2,500 are episodes of TV series. Partners include Flixter (Warners), Sony and Paramount and 13 retail chains including Target and Best Buy. There are 18 million registrations in the US.
Jim Benz, VP of business development at service provider at CSG Content Direct, said that he is now talking to parties in Europe including retailers such as Media Markt and Saturn as well as telco’s for further roll-out of UV in Europe. The company has just expanded its presence in Europe.
“Retailers who are selling DVDs and BDs now also want to sell digital content as physical goods start to decline. They want to capture digital market.”
