Home entertainment sales down 5%

Overall sales of home entertainment in the U.S. are off 5% for the first half of 2011, according to the Digital Entertainment Group, after last year's success of Fox's homevideo launch of "Avatar" propped up much of the biz.Disc and electronic sales and rentals across various platforms generated $8.3 billion during the first six months of the year, compared with nearly $8.8 billion last year.While DVD and Blu-ray sales fell 18.3% during the first half, the DEG is "encouraged" by signs of "stabilization" during the second quarter, which was down just 3.6% over the first quarter's 6.4% drop."Avatar" moved 12 million discs during the second quarter in 2010.But overall rentals rose nearly 11% to earn nearly $4.2 billion. Figure includes VOD, streaming, kiosk and other physical rentals.Broken out, subscription-based streams of rented fare through companies like Netflix rose 46% to collect nearly $1.6 billion during the first half of 2011. Kiosks exhibited the second highest growth at nearly 40% to earn $806 million.Electronic sales of films is still rising slowly at 4% during the first six months, earning $270 million, yet VOD is at $929 million, also up 4%.The DEG noted that Blu-ray sales are up 10% for the year so far -- notable given that the homevid industry is eager for Blu-ray to make up for the downturn in DVD sales, given their higher pricepoint and profit margin.The number of Blu-ray households has grown 13% this year over the same period in 2010, through the sale of 4.9 million Blu-ray players, including those built into PlayStation 3 consoles. There are now 31.6 million Blu-ray players in U.S. homes. Contact Marc Graser at marc.graser@variety.com