Netflix, Amazon U.K. Streaming Revenue to Top Box-Office Spend by 2020, PwC Forecasts

The consulting firm predicts the home entertainment market will suffer a "terminal decline," with sales being cut in half.

Netflix and Amazon are poised to become the biggest moneymakers for movies in the U.K. in the next four years.

According to consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers, U.K. revenue for streaming video services, which offer film and TV content, will grow by more than 30 percent to reach $1.81 billion by 2020, overtaking local cinema spending, which it estimates will reach $1.80 billion, with admissions rising from 172 million in 2016 to 179 million in 2021.

“Demand for internet video shows no signs of slowing down,” said Phil Stokes, U.K. head of entertainment and media at PwC, speaking to The Guardian. “The figures do not signal the death of film. Look at the box office performance of films such as Star Wars: Rogue One or Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them to see the significant amount of enthusiasm for blockbuster movies out there.”

But at the same time as digital continues to grow, PwC expects to see a "terminal decline" in the home entertainment market, with DVD and Blu-ray sales falling from $1.55 billion in 2016 to $679 million by 2021.

“The failure in this market is the high street retailers, supermarkets and specialist stores [that sell DVDs and Blu-ray],” added Stokes. “As well as the shift to digital a lot of physical buying is from services like Amazon. And online streaming is bypassing high street retailers.”