Downturn brings uptick in 'intertainment'

PARIS - It's a Friday night and Giovanni Barbaro, a 33-year-old Milan coffee shop owner, is buying videos instead of going to the movies.

"I can watch them as many times as I like," Barbaro says, emerging from a Blockbuster outlet. "The fact that life's getting expensive makes me think more about what I spend on entertainment."

British, French, and Italian consumers are reducing spending at bars, restaurants, and theaters faster than anyone else as recession grips Europe. That may be a boon for companies such as Internet dating site Meetic and video- game seller Digital Bros SpA. Home entertainment is one of the last things Europeans will cut back on, along with cigarettes and alcohol, a Nielsen Co. survey showed.

"Staying in has become the new going out," says Tarlok Teji, a partner at Deloitte & Touche LLP in Leeds, England, who oversees research on the UK retail industry. "Heading to clubs, bars and restaurants for lavish events is over for many of us. It's a mega-trend and it's here to stay."

This Christmas, Britons will spend an average $194 on socializing, 12 percent less than last year, according to Deloitte. Teji says the shift to "intertainment" will drive companies to offer more family-oriented services.

Gameloft, Europe's biggest maker of games for mobile phones, charges $9.04 for its "TV Show King," a three-round trivia contest that can be downloaded and played by four people at a time. The Paris company predicts sales for this quarter will rise 50 percent as it adds games for multiple players, says Gonzague de Vallois, a senior vice president.

"An entire family can play together, and many of the games can be played virtually indefinitely," de Vallois says. "No fuss, no packaging, no shops: Our distribution model is well adapted to the circumstances" as people stay home more.

Montreuil-sous-Bois, France-based Ubisoft Entertainment SA, Europe's biggest maker of video games, Wednesday said first-half earnings excluding nonrecurring items increased more than fivefold.

Meetic, the largest publicly traded dating website on the continent, charges 30 euros a month for full access to user profiles as young people look for cheaper ways to make connections. The company reported record daily sales for Oct. 5, the day before the Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index posted its steepest decline since 1987.

Shares of Meetic, based in Boulogne-Billancourt, France, have risen 14 percent since dropping to a 12-month low on Oct. 17, compared with a 5.2 percent drop in the SBF-250 Index, a broad measure of French shares.

Digital Bros, the Milan-based distributor of video games such as "Cooking Mama" for Nintendo Co.'s game consoles, recorded a 30 percent increase in sales for the 12 months ended in June.

"There are more opportunities for us as more people stay home and tighten their belts," says chief executive Raffaele Galante. "People prefer to buy a sandwich for one euro and a video game that can last for 100 hours."