Home entertainment revs increased in 2012

CAN YOU DEG IT? Here’s some encouraging news from the next industry over: Sales and rentals of TV shows and movies ticked up in 2012 for the first time in seven years, fueled by a 35% increase in digital transactions, the N.Y. Post reports, citing figures released yesterday by the Digital Entertainment Group, whose members include the big studios. Digital business, which is dominated by Apple and Amazon, obviously, rose to $811.5 million last year from $603 million the previous year, while video-on-demand rentals grew 11.4%, to $583 million. Total spending on home entertainment last year inched ahead 0.2%, to $18 billion. Ron Sanders, President of both DEG and Warner Home Video, told the Post’s Claire Atkinson: “What you are seeing is, finally, the growth of businesses we’ve been investing in, such as Blu-ray disc sales and electronic sell-through [such as sales via Apple]. We are excited when we can get the customer to own it.” Sanders added that Hurricane Sandy had an undeniable effect on Q4 sales, which fell off dramatically, with 15% of retailers being forced to close during the period. But just like the music industry, the movie biz is losing ground on shiny round things, as DVD sales fell 5.5% to $8.46 billion. Meanwhile, Hollywood also enjoyed a 6% jump in box office last year, to more than $10.8 billion. (1/9a)