[by Mark Hefflinger, www.dmwmedia.com]
Consumers still largely favor DVD and Blu-ray for watching movies over all the emerging digital services combined, according to a report from market research firm NPD Group.
Seventy-seven percent of consumers reported watching a DVD or Blu-ray over the past three months, while 68% watched a movie on a TV or cable network; 49% saw one in a theater; and 21% used a paid video-on-demand service through their televisions.
Consumers also reported that 78% of their home video budgets went to purchase or rent DVDs/Blu-rays — including both online and in-store — while 15% was spent on video subscription services like Netflix.
The remaining 8% was split between digital video downloads, paid streaming, paid transactional video-on-demand, and pay-per-view.
“With the well publicized struggles of Blockbuster and retail video stores closing around the country, and with media attention increasingly focused on the newest digital home-video offerings, the value and importance of physical formats to the home video industry and to consumers is often overlooked,” said NPD analyst Russ Crupnick.
“Even though DVD sales and rentals are slowing, there is no evidence that consumers are abandoning physical discs for watching movies, even as the choices for viewing are expanding.”
See the original story here: http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2011/04/18/report-dvd-bluray-still-dominate-video-viewing-spending