Report: Physical video spend down, online options increasing

Physical video media spending has been slipping since 2004 and is expected to decrease to just over $123/household in 2012. Video rental spending is also on the decline, 7.3% down (2011 vs 2010). At the same time, spending on streaming events is on the up.

"The overall view for U.S. video spending is less bleak when other forms of transactional and on-demand subscription video are added to the mix," said Michael Arrington, senior analyst for U.S. video at IHS. "If revenue were to be added from other viewing options such as video-on-demand, Internet-based sales and rentals, and subscription streaming from providers like Netflix and Hulu Plus--alternatives to physical disc purchases and rentals that consumers have been steadily gravitating toward for the past several years--consumer spending across all outlets of home video would amount to nearly $17.2 billion, a much more substantial figure."

For April comScore reports more than 181 million US online consumers watched more than 35 billion video clips. While Google's YouTube remains for the forerunner for video consumption, full-episodes hosts like Hulu account for more than 28 million unique viewers and 901 million video sessions.

Tags: comScore, iSupply, online video, physical video spending, video trends