NPD: Consumers To Maintain Or Increase Game Spending In 09

65 percent of consumers will spend the same amount of money -- or more -- on video games as they did last year, according to a new NPD group study. In a report called Entertainment Trends in America, NPD found similar trends for other entertainment media including digital music downloads, CDs, movie theaters and DVDs. The only entertainment spending category that declined is magazines and newspapers. "Even in the face of a down economy, entertainment remains a popular spending category," says NPD analyst Russ Crupnick. "Most consumers say they’ll continue to purchase at least the same amount of many entertainment categories in the coming year." The average American spends $160 a month on entertainment, says the NPD's report. Most of these expenses go to monthly subscriptions for TV and Internet services. The NPD explains its study is based on over 10,000 responses from U.S. consumers, and the data was weighted to represent U.S. population aged 13 and older.