Barb said the figures were a slight increase on the 20.7 million homes who subscribed to an SVOD service in the second quarter of the year.

Netflix led the way in the third quarter, with 18.3 million homes having access, up from 18 million the previous quarter.

Amazon Prime Video was in 14.3 million homes, up from 13.6 million the prior quarter, while Disney+ was in nine million homes, a slight increase on 8.9 million in the second quarter.

Discovery+ was in 3.6 million UK homes, Paramount+ had four million homes, Apple TV was in 3.1 million homes and Now had two million homes.

HBO Max debuted in the list with 3.1 million since its launch earlier this year.

Doug Whelpdale, head of insight at Barb, said: “Overall, the number of homes with an SVOD service passed 21 million ( 71%) for the first time.

“With that only a 290,000 increase on Q2 2026, it suggests more viewers are accessing more than one service. This is backed by the number of homes with two+ services rising by almost 600,000 in Q3 2026 to 15.4m ( 52%).”