entertainment market trends

I have heard a lot about video game growth and music sales declining in the press lately, but I rarely see all the data in one spot. Here is most of the entertainment industry in billions of dollars of revenues per year:

	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	CAGR
Video sales & rentals	19.9	18.7	20.4	22.2	24.5	5.3%
- Video sales	11.7	10.3	12.1	14.0	16.1	8.4%
- Video rentals	8.3	8.4	8.3	8.2	8.4	0.5%
Source: VSDA
Music	14.3	13.7	12.6	11.9	12.1	-4.2%
Source: RIAA
Cable	29.4	32.3	34.0	34.2	36.2	5.4%
Source: Regan Research
Movie box office	7.7	8.4	9.5	9.5	9.5	5.6%
Source: MPA
Video games:
- Software	5.5	6.1	7.0	7.0	7.3	7.5%
- Console software	3.4	3.7	4.7	4.9	5.2	11.8%
- Portable software	0.8	0.9	0.9	0.9	1.0	6.2%
- PC software	1.4	1.5	1.5	1.2	1.1	-5.0%
- Software rentals	0.9	0.6	0.7	0.7	n/a	n/a
Source: NPD
Concerts	1.7	1.8	2.1	2.5	2.8	13.3%
Source: Pollstar

All caveats apply on this data (as in it could be all wrong)

Console software and concerts have clearly grown the fastest over the last 4 years. I rarely hear concerts as a growth industry. Given the drop in CD sales maybe people are forsaking recorded music for live music.

I'm surprised that video sales are both larger and faster growing than rentals. I haven't bought a movie in years. But then again it seems most people have issues with 'renting' content as I've discussed before.

PC gaming seems like a dead end. That's a precipitous drop since 2000. Unfortunately for video game publishers that translates to higher costs as there is no license fee to write games on the PC.

And finally the weirdest part of this data. Home video sales and rentals are 2/3 the size of all cable revenues. Now I don't own cable, and I haven't in a while. But I hear an average cable bill approaches $100 a month now. Are people really spending $66 on DVD purchases and rentals? That seems so high.