Most popular film and TV content now available digitally, says KPMG

The film and TV industries are reacting to digital consumer demands, with the “vast majority” of the most popular and critically acclaimed content now available on legal digital platforms, according to KPMG.

The accountancy firm’s report, called ‘UK availability of film and TV titles in the digital age’ claims that as at December 2013, 86% of the 756 unique films that KPMG reviewed were available via online VoD distribution on at least one of the 27 legal digital streaming and download services studied.

This included 100% of the 2012 UK top 100 box office hits, 98% of the 2011 UK top 100 box office hits and 96% of the UK all-time box office hits.

“When we turn our attention to the availability of the most popular and critically acclaimed film titles by business model, we found that the majority were available on the two online transactional models – 86% were available on EST and 67% via online rental,” said KPMG.

“A relatively lower proportion of the most popular and critically acclaimed films were offered under the SVOD model (39%) and none was offered under the advertising-supported VOD model.”

Out of a separate sample of 814 of the most popular and critically acclaimed film and TV titles, 538 were available on at least one online video distribution service at the end of 2013.

This included 75% of the top 100 UK TV programmes in 2011, 73% of the top 100 UK TV programmes in 2012, 73% of the top 100 UK TV programmes in 2013, and 71% of pre-2011 modern TV hits.

“The highest proportion of online availability of the most popular and critically acclaimed TV titles by business model was via the EST platform (61%). With the exception of just two TV titles out of 814, our findings suggest that digital copies of TV shows must be purchased rather than rented, as they are not available for online rental, either as individual episodes or as entire season or series,” said KPMG.