Electronic sell-through

Electronic sell-through(EST) is a method of media distribution whereby consumers pay a one-time fee todownloada media file for storage on ahard drive.Although EST is often described as a transaction that grants content "ownership" to the consumer, the content may become unusable after a certain period and may not be viewable using competing platforms.EST is used by a wide array of digital media products, including movies, television, music, games, and mobile applications. The term is sometimes used interchangeably withdownload to own(DTO).

Film and television

The film and television industry's $18.8 billion home entertainment market consists of rental and sell-through segments, the latter of which includes the electronic sell-through of digital content.In 2010, EST generated $683 million of total home entertainment revenues,putting it behind the more lucrative revenue streams of cablevideo-on-demand(VOD) andinternet video-on-demand(iVOD), which brought in a combined $1.8 billion in the same period.

In 2010,Apple's iTunes Storeaccounted for three quarters of the U.S. EST business.The rest of the EST market was captured byMicrosoft(via itsZune Video platform),Sony,Amazon VOD (nowAmazon Video), andWalmart(via itsVUDUservice).

A number of industry trends indicate the future expansion of EST's share ofdigital distributionrevenues. David Bishop, worldwide president ofSony Pictures Home Entertainment,describes the following outlook:

"With the launch ofUltraViolet(the cloud-based digital copy locker system) establishing a common digital distribution platform later this year, prices potentially coming down on digital sales, more marketing devoted to digital sellthrough, and studios adding more value to the sellthrough product by making HD available and building in smarter extra features, we see the balance tilting even more toward owning and collecting digital movies. "