According to DEG: The Digital Entertainment Group, U.S. consumer spending for Q3 2014 was an estimated $3.92 billion, down 1.2 percent from the same quarter last year. Consumer spending on DVDs and Blu-ray Discs combined was down 8 percent in the quarter, while electronic sell-through grew 26 percent. Transaction VOD was down almost 7 percent; however, spending on subscription VOD, such as Netflix streaming, saw an increase of more than 26 percent for the first nine months of the year.

DEG released its latest figures yesterday, noting that total digital spending in the U.S. on EST (Digital HD), SVOD, and a la carte VOD and EST was up 16.3 percent to about $5.4 billion.

“In the first nine months of this year, consumers spent an estimated $12.5 billion on bringing entertainment into their homes and various mobile devices, a decline of less than 1 percent from the $12.62 billion they spent in the first nine months of last year,” reports Variety.

“DEG numbers show that the total amount of money consumers spent in the quarter on buying filmed entertainment — on disc and digitally — slipped 2.5 percent, to $1.68 billion from $1.72 billion in the third quarter of 2013. For the year through Sept. 30, consumer sell-through spending was down 2.7 percent to $5.61 billion from $5.77 billion in the first nine months of last year.”

Disc rentals at physical video stores experienced a significant decline, dropping 32 percent in the first nine months of this year, while disc rentals through kiosks such as Redbox machines declined 5.9 percent.