Tesco leapfrogs HMV to be second largest UK entertainment retailer

Tesco has overtaken HMV has the UK’s second-largest entertainment products retailer.

The retailer’s share of the UK entertainment market rose 1.6 percentage points to 13.2% in the 12 weeks ending 9 June 2013 compared with the same period a year ago, new data from Kantar Worldpanel reveals. The first movie in The Hobbit series, An Unexpected Journey, was a big hit for Tesco, which took a quarter of all UK spend on the title.

“Tesco has been boosted by its on-going success selling big video releases,” said Kantar Worldpanel consumer insight director Fiona Keenan.

The other major supermarkets have also performed well, with Asda now accounting for 10.5% of the entertainment market (up 1.1 points) Sainsbury’s accounting for 8.2% (up 2.4 points) and Morrisons 3.7% (up 0.1 points).

Of the supermarkets, Sainsbury’s benefitted the most from the closure of HMV stores, gaining £2.3m in sales this quarter from HMV shoppers switching.

“HMV’s recent store closures have hit the high street retailer hard, with its number of shoppers almost halving in the latest 12 weeks compared with the same quarter last year and its market share dropping by 8.4 points,” added Keenan. Amazon gained most from HMV’s decline, making an additional £4.5m from former HMV customers.

Across the market, digital music sales have grown by 12.5% and have helped to boost iTunes Music to number three in the entertainment retailers’ chart. “iTunes Music’s record share is testament to rising sales of digital music, which now makes up 51.4% of all music,” said Keenan.

“The growth of digital, boosted largely by invigorated digital album sales, has helped the total music market to grow slightly over the past year, despite continued declines in physical music.”

Sales of DVD and physical video games have also continued to fall, said Kantar, although Blu-ray sales rose 27% year-on-year.