DVD still way more popular than digital distribution

This is the digital era. The time in which bits overrule atoms. And yet. Americans still spend more of their time and money on DVDs than on digital models for movie consumption. Over the last three months, 77% watched a movie on DVD or Blu-ray and averagely did so for four hours a week. Over the same period, 49% indicated to have watched a movie in the cinema. The fraction that used video-on-demand services was 21%.

These figures emerge from a study by market research firm NPD. NPD surveyed close to ten thousand consumers over 13 years old and inquired after the way they consumed movies and how much they spent on them. In movie spending, physical discs (sales and rentals combined) accounted for 78%. Eight per cent was spent on paid downloads, pay-per-view, paid video-on-demand and most paid streaming services. Netflix, a category of it’s own, accounted for the remaining 15% (this brings the total to 101%, which is probably due to rounding off the figures). The reason that the researchers created a new category just for Netflix is probably that Netflix both rents out physical discs and has a streaming service.

Although discs are still the preferred way of enjoying movies, income from sold and rented discs fell by 9% last year. Still, based on their findings, NPD analyst Russ Crupnick is reluctant to predict the imminent demise of physical carriers:"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,"
 
Source: Ars Technica