NEWS21 February 2020
UK – Over half of UK homes have a subscription to either Netflix, Amazon Prime Video or Now TV, according to data from television audience measurement organisation Barb.
The proportion of households subscribing to at least one of the three international streaming services was 50.5% in the fourth quarter of 2019 – the first time the figure has surpassed 50%.
Barb’s subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) homes tracker also found that 14.27m households access at least one of the services, which represents an increase of 4.4% compared with the previous quarter.
The largest SVOD service in the UK is still Netflix, with 12.35m homes subscribed – up almost 20% from Q4 2018.
However, Amazon Prime Video is the fastest growing, increasing by 35% year-on-year to reach 7.14m homes.
The proportion of households with multiple subscriptions to streaming services is still growing. The trackers found that 6.03m homes ( 21%) subscribe to more than two SVOD providers – 1.72m more than the same period the year before.
The UK SVOD market is set to face more competition, with Apple and Disney launching new services and the BBC and ITV forming new joint SVOD venture BritBox.