Digital | 5:54 February 18, 2010 | Pete Dodd | Print this story

Digital market to reach $233 billion in US, report

The US home digital entertainment market will be worth $233 billion by 2013, according to research company In-Stat.

A new In-Stat report — Competing Business Models for the Future of Digital Entertainment — said key operators in the sector are keen to avoid what happened in digital music where one company — Apple — has dominated.

In-Stat analyst Keith Nissen said, “As web-to-TV initiatives accelerate, pay TV operators’ ‘TV Everywhere’ concepts must deliver more than just TV content on a PC screen. It must deliver a complementary web-based video experience to any screen.”

So far device manufacturers and retailers had not benefited from their investment in Blu-ray technology where adoption had been slow, the report said.

It also showed live sports and TV events held a competitive advantage for pay-TV operators with high-value content migrating to premium channels, further benefiting pay-TV subscription revenue.

Elsewhere a global survey by Nielsen showed 79% of web users would abandon sites that introduced charges, preferring to find similar information at no cost. More than 70% of those surveyed said content would have to improve considerably if they were going to pay for it.

But 50% of participants said they would consider paying or have already paid for online movies, music, games and professionally produced videos.