Entertainment publishers are expected to continue focusing the bulk of their activity on the end of the year - despite rolling out a host of blockbuster movies early in 2013.

Skyfall, which came out in February, was a huge hit for the supermarkets - three of the big four grew their share of the overall entertainment market year-on-year in Q1 after taking an 80% share of physical sales [Kantar Worldpanel 12 w/e 17 March 2013].

Some industry observers claimed that strong video launches such as Skyfall, Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2 (March) and The Hobbit (April), indicated publishers were moving away from targeting the Christmas market.

Staggering big launches across the year would bring greater returns for the industry, they added. However, a key reason for the shift was cinema releases being forced back to later in 2012 by the Olympics, said Asda category manager Alex Crowe, and more DVD releases consequently falling into the first half of this year.

While this had given the impression of a change in strategy by the publishers, music and gaming launches were looking light in the early part of 2013, added Kim Bayley, director general of trade body the Entertainment retailers’ Association.

“If we look at music album sales for Q1 (excluding compilations), total sales are level year-on-year but top 10 volumes are down 13.5% and top 100 volumes are down 11.1% - in other words, no hits.”

The biggest-selling album of 2012 - Emeli Sandé’s Our Version of Events - was launched in Q1 last year.

Morrisons was the only one of the big four to lose entertainment share year-on-year in Q1, falling 0.7 points to 3%, with Tesco up 2.2 points to 12.2%, Sainsbury up 1.2 points to 6.5% and Asda up 0.1 points to 10.5% [Kantar Worldpanel].

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