News
Digital market worth '£80m' in 2008
27.04.09 | Philip Jones
The UK publishing industry is "some way away from a tipping point" in terms of digital sales, according to Ian Huson, deputy chief executive, Random House Group, and president of The Publishers Association. Publishers' sales of digital product rose by 27% in 2008, according to figures published today (27th April) by the Publishers Association. But the actual size of the digital market remains small, worth less than 3% of the total book market.
According to the figures, from the PA Yearbook 2008, the total size of the digital market was estimated to be £75m to £80m, with sales of fiction, non-fiction and children's titles, amounting to £1m-£2m. But about 85% of these digital sales to consumers came from audio downloads, with just 15% from e-books or other book downloads. The PA said sales of audiobook downloads nearly doubled in 2008 over 2007, but e-books/downloads for 2007 were negligible making it difficult to calculate year-on-year growth.
Writing in the Yearbook, Hudson said that "early sales of the Sony ebook Reader have certainly exceeded expectations", but added, that the "industry is probably some way away from a tipping point, and we may well still be in the phase of proliferation rather than convergence when it comes to devices and formats".
The PA statistics found that more than two-thirds of the reported digital sales were in the academic/professional sector, with sales estimated at between £53-£57m, while school and ELT publishers recorded digital revenue of between £12-£14m. Downloads of consumer reference titles were £7-£8m.
The PA calculated the figures from publishers representing about 60% of the overall market, with the total net value of digital sales from the companies providing relevant information at £45.1m in 2008. This was 27% higher than the £35.4m sales recorded by the same companies in 2007. Sales in the general consumer category increased 127% on the previous year.
Overall, the PA recorded UK publishers sales of £2.99bn in 2008, meaning that digital sales accounted for an estimated 2.7% of the total book market; with sales of consumer digital products less than 1% of the smaller consumer market. With e-book sales estimated at £0.3m in 2008, these represented just 0.01% of consumer book sales in 2008, compared to a simiar survey in the US, which estimated e-book sales of 1.5%.
Also writing in the Yearbook, Anthony Forbes Watson, managing director, Pan Macmillan, said that the "much vaunted 'ebook market' became a small but distinct reality" in 2008. Forbes Watson praised the launch of the Sony Reader by Waterstone’s, which "shifted the ebook market from myth to concrete reality", adding that "Kindle’s expected arrival in the UK in 2009 will be another major factor in the formation of the UK ebook market".
* The UK book publishing industry statistics yearbook 2008 is the Publishers Association's annual publication of book statistics drawn from the PA Sales Monitor Scheme (PASM). The yearbook 2008 covers UK publishers' sales (home and export) from 2004 to 2008 as well as estimates of the UK book market size 2006 to 2008. A complimentary copy has been sent to the head of each PA member company. The yearbook is available from the PA, full price: £100.00 (trade £50.00).
Comments on this article
By Mark Pearson
I think this article shows the true growth potential of ebooks in the UK, and the value inherent in both existing publishers moving further digital, and the new breed of aggregators such as www.alwaysebooks.co.uk. There is a real thirst especially in learning markets outlined above, however looking at the American market it is surprising how many people read for leisure.03 Dec 09 14:53
