Music, video and games sales in the UK surged by 6.4 per cent in the first half of 2017 compared with same period of 2016, according to figures from trade body Entertainment Retailers Association. It marks a sharp acceleration on the growth seen in calendar 2016 when sales grew 3 per cent compared with 2015.

A key factor in the soaring growth was increasing take-up of streaming services from ERA members such as Spotify, Amazon and Netflix.

Music was the star performer of the three sectors, growing 11.2 per cent in the first half of 2017 compared with the same period of 2016.

Music also delivered the biggest-selling title in ERA’s Entertainment Chart combining sales of music, video and games, with Ed Sheeran’s Divide selling 2.065 million units, well ahead of Rogue One – A Star Wars Story with sales of 1.18 million and Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them on 1.032 million.

“Entertainment has now seen over four years of continuous growth thanks to a combination of digital services pioneering new ways of consuming music, video and games, and physical retailers working hard to maximise sales of discs,” advised ERA CEO Kim Bayley. To now deliver another £180 million worth of sales in the first half of 2017 is really extraordinary.”

Overall entertainment sales increased 6.4 per cent to £2.997 million (€3.348m) in the first six months of 2017 compared with £2.817 million in the same period of 2016.

Music grew fastest at 11.2 per cent, followed by games on 8.4 per cent and video at 1.2 per cent.

The numbers show a continuing shift to digital formats with three quarters (75.4 per cent) of revenues now accounted for by digital.

The exception to the rule continues to be vinyl LPs. Vinyl sales increased 35.7 per cent by volume to 1.9 million units in the first half of 2017, with value increasing 37.6 per cent to £37.3 million.

Games accounted for just over 48 per cent of the entertainment retail market in the first half, with video representing around one third. Music takes just under 20 per cent of the market.

Ed Sheeran’s Divide has already broken countless records – including placing every track in the Official UK Singles Chart – and ERA figures now reveal it was also the biggest-selling entertainment product of the first six months of 2017.

Its sales total of 2.065 million units was nearly 885,000 ahead of the second-placed title, the video of Rogue One – A Star Wars Story.

Elsewhere in music, Rag ‘n’ Bone Man’s debut album Human, propelled by the single of the same name generated sales of 694,000 units to become the sixth biggest-selling entertainment product of the first six months of 2017.

Overall, however, it was video which dominated the biggest-sellers with seven of the Top 10, including a particularly strong showing for children’s animation with Moana, Trolls and Sing all in the Top 10.

Reflecting the fact that games publishers typically skew their biggest releases to the fourth quarter, there were no games titles in the Top 10. The highest-placed game was Grand Theft Auto V at number 13.

Noting the figures, Liz Bales CEO at the British Association for Screen Entertainment (BASE) said “We are once again seeing the shoots of year-on-year growth for the video category and with consumer spend over £989 million in the first half of 2017 it is clear that video continues to deliver robust sales for UK businesses and account for over 33 per cent of the entertainment market value.”

“Innovative delivery channels continue to change the shape of the market, and while digital video growth once again tracks in double digits, the physical side of the video category has still delivered over £321 million in consumer spend across 37.3 million discs in this first six months and remains a significant contributor to the entertainment sector, with 10.7 per cent of overall entertainment value, the third largest individual entity in the sector.”

“Video category Highlights so far this year have included children’s releases showing growth year on year for the genre as well as the launch of innovative campaigns such as ‘Must See Movies’, the result of a yearlong collaboration between retailers and distributors. All driving sales toward children’s catalogue. With the campaign still in its first weeks it will be interesting to see the final results towards the end of July.”

“TV sales have also shown a strong demand for UK produced content in the form of Sherlock, Peter Kay’s Car Share and Line of Duty, all populating the Top 10 TV chart.”

“Video dominates the overall entertainment chart, taking 26 of the top 40 titles, four of which are in the top five titles of the year so far, and three of which have amounted sales in excess of one million. Performance that demonstrates the enormous diversity in video content and regardless of the legal route to content, video continues to captivate consumer attention.”

Looking toward the future, we see the announcement of Disney’s first 4K UHD release (Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 2) expecting to help the premium format grow to new levels. This, twinned with a diverse and exciting slate of content expected throughout the next few months including Get Out, A Dogs Purpose, Boss Baby, and the BBC’s six-part drama Broken, we can expect a positive Q3,” she concluded.

Other posts by Colin Mann:

1. Analysis: SVoDs drive $220bn content spend
2. A TikToking clock heading towards regeneration – or not?
3. European pay-radio: Getting ready

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