UK MUSIC STREAMING MARKET EXCEEDS £1 BILLION FOR THE FIRST TIME VIDEO IS FASTEST GROWING SECTOR IN 2019 GAMES ARE THE ENTERTAINMENT HIT OF THE DECADE – UP 76% ON 2010

ERA’s authoritative data on the entertainment market in 2019 shows streaming growth still surging, but physical formats surprisingly resilient

 

3 January 2020: Spending by UK music fans on streaming services exceeded £1bn for the first time in 2019 as overall expenditure on entertainment increased to another all-time-high, according to preliminary data compiled by the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA).  

 

That £1bn total spent on music subscription services from the likes of Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music and Deezer is four times as much as just five years ago and an incredible 31 times the level in 2010. 

 

Despite falls in sales of physical music, video and games formats, strong demand for digital services was sufficient to produce overall entertainment market growth of 2.4% to £7.8bn, its seventh consecutive year of growth. 

 

UK CONSUMER SPENDING ON ENTERTAINMENT 2019  
- PRELIMINARY FIGURES (£m) 

 

2018 

2019 

% change 

Music 

Physical 

£383.2 

£318.1 

-17.0% 

 

Downloads 

£122.6 

£89.7 

-26.8% 

 

Streaming 

£812.0 

£1,002.9 

23.5% 

 

Total Music 

£1,317.8 

£1,410.7 

7.1% 

 

 

 

 

 

Video 

Physical Retail 

£616.9 

£477.2 

-22.6% 

 

Physical Rental 

£31.1 

£23.4 

-24.8% 

 

Digital 

£1,736.5 

£2,109.4 

21.5% 

 

Total Video 

£2,384.4 

£2,610.0 

9.5% 

 

 

 

 

 

Games 

Physical 

£769.9 

£602.6 

-21.7% 

 

Digital 

£3,136.4 

£3,171.5 

1.1% 

 

Total Games 

£3,906.3 

£3,774.1 

-3.4% 

 

 

 

 

 

Total Entertainment 

Physical 

£1,801.1 

£1,421.3 

-21.1% 

 

Digital (inc streaming) 

£5,807.4 

£6,373.5 

9.7% 

 

Total Entertainment 

£7,608.5 

£7,794.8 

2.4% 

 

Sources: Music: Physical/digital – The Official Charts Company. Streaming estimates – ERA/BPI. 

Video: Physical retail – The Official Charts Company/BASE. Physical rental – IHS Markit. Digital - Futuresource Consulting estimates of transactional digital video including  EST (Electronic Sell-Through) Movies & TV, iVoD (online digital rental) and CVoD/Pay-TV VoD (digital rental via Pay-TV providers to a STB). Adult & PPV sports are excluded. SVoD (Subscription video on demand) - Online subscription streaming services such as Netflix and an allocation of Amazon Prime revenue. Now TV movies, entertainment & kids is also included within this, but sports is excluded). 

Games: Physical – GfK Chart Track. Digital – IHS Markit estimates (including digital online, mobile and tablet gaming) 

 

ERA CEO Kim Bayley said, “The rise of digital entertainment services has created the biggest revolution in UK leisure habits in history, enabling people to access the music, video and games they love wherever and whenever they want, and transforming the fortunes of record labels, filmmakers and games developers. The fact that in 2019 over 80% of entertainment spending was on digital services shows the scale of that revolution.” 

 

 

PHYSICAL DOWN, BUT NOT OUT 

 

The flipside to digital’s success has been increasing pressure on sales of physical formats. Expenditure on physical music, console games and DVDs further decreased in 2019 with sales of physical products down on average around 20%.  

 

“There is no doubt retailers of physical product had a tough time in 2019,” said Bayley, “but physical entertainment was still a £1.4bn retail business.  Sales of vinyl and 4K Ultra HD discs are buoyant and still growing and we still have huge hit phenomena like FIFA 20 which can sell 1.5m physical units at around £40 a time. Physical is down, but it’s definitely not out.” 

 

 

VIDEO WAS 2019’s FASTEST GROWING SECTOR 

 

While expenditure on entertainment overall grew by 2.4% in 2019, spending on video surged by 9.5% driven entirely by the continuing rise of digital, ranging from downloads from Amazon, Apple and Sky Store and increasingly from streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime and Sky’s Now TV. 

 

Digital video sales grew by 21.5% to £2.11bn, while physical revenues decreased 22.7% to £500m. In cash terms it meant Britons spent £147m less on physical video formats in 2019 than in 2018, but £373m more on digital and subscription. 

 

The biggest video hit of 2019 was the Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody with 1.7m copies sold, two thirds of them on physical formats. 

 

ERA CEO Kim Bayley said, “Video’s digital renaissance is remarkable, but it is undeniable that physical formats are the key to scoring a blockbuster hit. Every one of the year’s Top 10 biggest hits sold more on DVD and Blu-ray than they did digitally.” 

 

THE UK'S BEST-SELLING VIDEOS 2019 

 

Title 

Studio 

Units Sold 

% Phys 

% Dig 

1 

Bohemian Rhapsody 

20th Century Fox  

1,700,683 

67.2% 

32.8% 

2 

Avengers - Endgame 

Walt Disney Studios 

1,305,647 

59.2% 

40.8% 

3 

Toy Story 4 

Walt Disney Studios 

789,310 

67.6% 

32.4% 

4 

Mary Poppins Returns 

Walt Disney Studios 

717,909 

75.1% 

24.9% 

5 

A Star Is Born  

Warner Home Video 

701,984 

n/a 

n/a 

6 

The Lion King 

Walt Disney Studios 

659,561 

71.9% 

28.1% 

7 

Venom 

Sony Pictures  

653,497 

66.3% 

33.7% 

8 

Captain Marvel 

Walt Disney Studios 

638,187 

70.5% 

29.5% 

9 

Aladdin 

Walt Disney Studios 

637,092 

67.3% 

32.7% 

10 

Fantastic Beasts - Crimes Of Grindelwald 

Warner Home Video 

591,862 

n/a 

n/a 

 

Source: Official Charts Company, weighted as per BASE. Note - EST volumes include Film on Video and Children's Video ' Animated Film' Titles Only 

 

 

GAMES SUFFERS FROM END OF CONSOLE CYCLE 

 

Games remains entertainment’s biggest sector, nearly as large as video and music combined, but after years of growth in 2019 the sector shrunk by 3.4% to £3.77bn - its first year without growth since 2012. 

 

The reason for the stumble was the inevitable slowdown in sales ahead of the expected launch in late 2020 of the new PlayStation and Xbox consoles. The last such downturn came ahead of the launch of the current generation of Sony and Microsoft consoles in 2013. 

 

Expenditure on physical games software declined 21.7% in 2019 to £602.5m, while spend on online and mobile gaming increased 1.1% to £3.17bn. 

 

Biggest-selling physical title of the year – digital title information is currently not available – was FIFA 20. The latest edition of the blockbuster generated sales of 1.5m units and revenues of around £73m. 

 

ERA CEO Kim Bayley said, “The key message from the games business in 2019 is we need those two new consoles from PlayStation and Xbox – and soon.” 

 

 

THE UK'S BIGGEST-SELLING PHYSICAL CONSOLE GAMES 2019 

 

Title 

Company 

Physical Unit Sales 

1 

FIFA 20 

ELECTRONIC ARTS 

1,502,191 

2 

Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 

ACTIVISION BLIZZARD 

1,192,211 

3 

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe 

NINTENDO 

465,062 

4 

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order 

ELECTRONIC ARTS 

438,465 

5 

Red Dead Redemption 2 

TAKE 2 

306,392 

6 

FIFA 19 

ELECTRONIC ARTS 

278,417 

7 

Pokemon Sword 

NINTENDO 

273,991 

8 

Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled 

ACTIVISION BLIZZARD 

267,285 

9 

Grand Theft Auto V 

TAKE 2 

247,357 

10 

Tom Clancy's The Division 2 

UBISOFT 

237,226 

 

Source: GfK Chart Track 

 

MUSIC SEES FIFTH YEAR OF GROWTH THANKS TO STREAMING 

 

Music fans spent £1bn on subscription streaming services in 2019, meaning they spent more than twice as much accessing music than they did acquiring it on physical formats or through downloads (£407.8m). 

 

With growth of 23.5% compared with 2018, those streaming services delivered record labels a fifth successive year of growth. 

 

Physical formats and downloads of singles and albums were less buoyant, declining by around 20%  compared with the previous year. 

 

However vinyl sales again bucked the physical trend, increasing 6.4% to £97.1m. 

 

Biggest selling album of the year was Lewis Capaldi’s debut Divinely Inspired To A Hellish Extent with sales of around 641,000. 

 

ERA CEO Kim Bayley said, “As more and more people sign up to streaming services, it obviously becomes a challenge to maintain the same rate of growth, but the fact is UK music fans spent £190m more on subscription streaming services in 2019 than they did the year before – that’s more than twice the value of the entire vinyl market.” 

 

THE UK'S BIGGEST-SELLING ALBUMS 2019 

 

Title 

Artist 

Company 

Total Units 

% Physical 

% Streaming/Digital 

1 

Divinely Uninspired To A Hellish Extent 

Lewis Capaldi 

Universal Music 

640,892 

39.8% 

60.2% 

2 

No 6 Collaborations Project 

Ed Sheeran 

Warner Music 

568,110 

36.8% 

63.2% 

3 

The Greatest Showman 

Motion Picture Cast Recording 

Warner Music 

523,844 

40.3% 

59.7% 

4 

When We All Fall Asleep Where Do We Go 

Billie Eilish 

Universal Music 

369,609 

27.0% 

73.0% 

5 

Staying At Tamara's 

George Ezra 

Sony Music 

331,949 

49.2% 

50.8% 

6 

Bohemian Rhapsody - OST 

Queen 

Universal Music 

331,244 

25.5% 

74.5% 

7 

Thank U Next 

Ariana Grande 

Universal Music 

293,232 

14.1% 

85.9% 

8 

What A Time To Be Alive 

Tom Walker 

Sony Music 

269,551 

60.7% 

39.3% 

9 

Now That's What I Call Music 102 

Various Artists 

Sony Music/Universal Music 

250,626 

85.3% 

14.7% 

10 

A Star Is Born 

Motion Picture Cast Recording 

Universal Music 

242,418 

49.0% 

51.0% 

 

Source: Official Charts Company 

 

 

A DECADE IN REVIEW – GAMES THE STAR PERFORMER 

 

The close of 2019 marks the end of one of the most tumultuous decades in UK entertainment history, said ERA CEO Kim Bayley. 

 

“Since 2010, the combined music, video and games markets have grown by a third thanks primarily to the innovation and investment of digital services and retailers. The stand-out performer, however, is clearly games – up an incredible 76.2% over the past 10 years.” 

 

Key to games’s success has been not just adding downloads and streaming to existing games formats but also exploiting mobile and tablet technologies to create new games markets. 

 

 

ENTERTAINMENT EXPENDITURE - 2019 VERSUS 2010 (£m) 

 

2010 

2019 

% change 

Music 

Physical 

£872.6 

£318.1 

-63.5% 

 

Downloads 

£280.1 

£89.7 

-68.0% 

 

Streaming 

£31.5 

£1,002.9 

3083.7% 

 

Total Music 

£1,184.2 

£1,410.7 

19.1% 

 

 

 

 

 

Video 

Physical Retail 

£2,090.0 

£477.2 

-77.2% 

 

Physical Rental 

£277.7 

£23.4 

-91.6% 

 

Digital 

£154.1 

£2,109.4 

1268.8% 

 

Total Video 

£2,521.8 

£2,610.0 

3.5% 

 

 

 

 

 

Games 

Physical 

£1,527.0 

£602.6 

-60.5% 

 

Digital 

£614.7 

£3,171.5 

415.9% 

 

Total Games 

£2,141.7 

£3,774.1 

76.2% 

 

 

 

 

 

Total Entertainment 

Physical 

£4,767.3 

£1,421.3 

-70.2% 

 

Digital (inc streaming) 

£1,080.4 

£6,373.5 

489.9% 

 

Total Entertainment 

£5,847.7 

£7,794.8 

33.3% 

 

Sources: Music: Physical/digital – The Official Charts Company. Streaming estimates – ERA/BPI. 

Video: Physical retail – The Official Charts Company/BASE. Physical rental – IHS Markit.  Digital - 2010 ERA Estimates / 2019 Futuresource Consulting estimates of transactional digital video including EST (Electronic Sell-Through) Movies & TV, iVoD (online digital rental) and CVoD/Pay-TV VoD (digital rental via Pay-TV providers to a STB). Adult & PPV sports are excluded. SVOD (Subscription video on demand) - Online subscription streaming services such as Netflix and an allocation of Amazon Prime revenue. Now TV movies, entertainment & kids is also included within this, but sports excluded)  

Games: Physical – GfK Chart Track. Digital – IHS Markit estimates (including digital online, mobile and tablet gaming) 

 

 

 

ENDS 

 

ERA CEO Kim Bayley is available for interview 

 

For more information please contact Steve Redmond steve@eraltd.org (07770 924720)  

 

 

About ERA 

 

ERA is the trade association representing the vast majority of retailers and digital services offering music, video and games. Its members range from independent record shops (Reflex, Sister Ray) to digital services (Spotify, YouTube, Sky, Deezer, Virgin) to internet retailers (Amazon) to specialist High Street operators (HMV, Game) and supermarkets (Tesco, Sainsburys, Asda, Morrisons) 

 

ERA members supply the sales data which powers the Official Charts Company (music and video charts) and GfK Chart-Track and GSD (videogames). Together with record companies trade association the BPI, it owns the Official Charts Company. 

 

ERA provides the organisational force behind Record Store Day, the annual celebration of independent record stores which has become the most successful new music industry promotion of the past two decades. 

 

ERA works closely with its sister organisations in music, video and games and is a strong proponent of open markets, open standards and consumer choice. 

 

 

 

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