Data: UK home entertainment revenue at £5.7bn in 2025
January 13, 2026
The first set of figures to be released in 2026 by the British Association for Screen Entertainment (BASE) in association with the Official Charts Company reveal that audiences are watching films and TV shows at home more than ever, pushing the value of the UK Home Entertainment sector to £5.7 billion (€6.5bn), the largest figure in recorded history. This number includes streaming, buying and renting films digitally or on DVD or Blu-Ray.
The total value of the UK media and entertainment industry rose to £34 billion, also an industry record, where visual entertainment was the top choice for audiences, over gaming and music. This number includes transactional and pay-TV home entertainment, cinema, games and music, where the visual home entertainment consumer spend accounted for 17 per cent of that number. The value of the sector grew to an all-time high without the disruptions to production and distribution that have challenged the industry in recent years.
Wicked, filmed entirely in the UK, soared to the top of the sales charts in 2025, selling and renting 1.4 million units with a value of £17.7 million across UK Home Entertainment. This figure includes all sales and rentals of the film across Digital and Disc (EST, VoD, Blu-ray and DVD). (Official Charts Company measures individual content purchases on disc and digital, to rent, buy or own in the UK, unlike multi-content SVoD services). Wicked took £61.2 million at the UK Box office in 2024, while sequel Wicked: For Good has achieved £46.5 million at the box office so far in 2025 and 2026, before its home entertainment release on January 2nd 2026.
Liz Bales, Chief Executive, BASE, commentde: “The UK entertainment industry is a globally admired powerhouse of talent and innovation that has excelled in 2025. Whether it is buying, renting, streaming or in cinemas: UK supported and created film and TV shows continue to deliver for audiences. The strength of the UK entertainment industry is bolstered by the diversity of channels and choices for consumers who, alongside the array of streaming services being embraced, are flocking to buy and rent options, in growing numbers. As we move to embrace exciting new partnerships across the industry, and welcome Government’s recognition and support for the economic contribution of the Creative Industries, 2026 is set to offer exciting change, further growth and a wealth of brilliant and beautiful new stories for audiences to embrace in all the ways they know and love”.
Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II (pictured), released 25 years after the original, fought its way to the number two spot in the Official Video Chart 2025, reaping a value of £7.1 million across individual sales and rentals. More titles than ever were released fresh from cinemas and attracting a higher price: 79 in 2025, compared to 62 in 2024, in a year when the UK box office also rose by 1 per cent.
The papal thriller Conclave, starring Ralph Fiennes, proved the popularity of independent films and original stories with audiences, with the most rentals across the year, achieving a value of £4 million. The value of the UK rental market rose to £137 million in 2025, driven by strong stories, the ease of digital rental, and the premium rental market.
Warner Bros Pictures’ Superman (2025) flew to number one on the Official Blu-Ray Chart 2025, where the value of the category is up 3.1 per cent year on year. The higher price of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy achieved sales totaling 13.8k, with a value of £804.1k, showing the ongoing love for the fantasy films with fans, and the importance of older titles remaining available to audiences to own at home.
Downton Abbey: The Finale sold 56.5k DVDS for a value of £568k in just two weeks from its release on December 15th 2025, proving the ongoing popularity of the format for audiences who still value a physical copy of a film or TV show.
British made national treasure Bridget Jones was the fourth biggest selling film of the year on the Official Video Chart, with 740.5k sales and rentals for Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, and a value of £7.4 million. Another Universal Pictures title, British directed Jurassic Park: Rebirth was the fifth biggest selling title, with 598k sales and rentals, to contribute a value of £7.1 million.
The final week of 2025 saw 2.2 million unit sales and rentals, including 120.1k sales for classic Christmas titles Elf and 77.5k for The Polar Express, while Avatar: Fire and Ash dominated in cinemas, and Stranger Things: The Finale was released simultaneously on Netflix and in cinemas to the delight of UK fans.
Netflix remains the most popular service for UK consumers with 17.6 million subscribers in the autumn, bolstered by the success of titles like award winner Adolescence, and animated phenomenon K-Pop Demon Hunters. Prime Video was the second biggest channel, in 13.6 million homes, and popular with audiences with its mix of free titles for subscribers, as well as new and classic titles to buy and rent. Streaming remains the audience’s top choice for watching at home with 20.5 million homes using at least one service, and 69.5 per cent of the population watching. The now established ad-tiers for streaming channels contributed to the rise in value of the industry, when coupled with the consumer spend. Disney+ was in 7.5 million UK homes and Paramount+ was in 3.5 million homes. Smaller streaming channels also saw growth, as fans embraced variety of content across Discovery, which grew to 3.2 million homes, Apple TV which grew to 2.8 million homes, and NOW which grew to 2 million homes.
Four of the five top selling TV Titles in 2025 first aired on streaming channels in the UK, where HBO’s House of the Dragon dominated for the third year running, and fan favourite Doctor Who took the number two spot, with the classic Doctor Who: The Savages, which first aired in 1966, demonstrating the continuing thirst of fans for classic TV to own at home.