Combined music, films and gaming revenues hit a record £6.1bn in the UK in 2015

"Surging digital revenues pushed the UK’s combined games, video and music markets to an all-time high of £6.1 billion (€8.3m) in 2015, shrugging off a decade of decline, according to figures from the Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA) based on data from the Official Charts Company (music, video) and GfK Chart-track (video games).
Entertainment sales reached £6.04 billion in 2004, but that peak was then followed by years of decline, hitting a low point of £5.2 billion in 2012 in the face of the impact of the internet and the closure of High Street names like Woolworths, Our Price and Virgin.
Figures, however, suggest that substantial investment by new digital retailers and services is finally helping the industry turn the corner.
All three entertainment sectors registered growth last year with video up 1.5 per cent, music up 3.5 per cent and games up a striking 10 per cent.
In each sector, it was digital services driving the growth:
– In music, streaming services such as Spotify, Google Play Music, Apple Music, Deezer and Amazon Prime Music increased sales by nearly 50 per cent to £251m over the year;
– In video, digital revenues from services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime and Sky Store exceeded £1 billion for the first time, making it almost certain that video will become a majority-digital business in 2016;
– And in games digital revenues from online and mobile services – which are more than those of music and video put together -grew 17 per cent to £1.9 billion."

Source:  Advanced Television, 6th January 2016