It's been a bad holiday season for all retailers, but yesterday's results from HMV, on the back of what I've anecdotally heard from other, larger, retailers last year indicates that the entertainment industry is in for a perfect storm.
The DVD market is dying as we watch - you can count double digit falls month-on-month, and there are few platforms taking its place. OK, Redbox, Lovefilm and Netflix are all picking up some of the pieces, but more of the market is going to the pirates, if the work of my colleagues at KLipcorp is anything to go by. Moreover, the online streaming portals and rental services advantage a handful of mainstream titles.
It is strange that no one seems to care, and very little is being done about this. Just like the music industry before it, the film and TV industry is in denial and the tide comes in.
Personally, I truly hope that 2011 is the year that content owners begin to take this problem seriously. The casualties at the distribution end of the market are piling up, let's hope the rot does not spread to the content production industry. 2012 will be too late to act.