According to the latest SVOD Barometer conducted by Médiamétrie, 30% of French online users aged six years and older used an SVOD service during the past 12 months, which is 10 points higher than in December 2017.
This means that an estimated 13.6 million people watch series, films, documentaries or cartoons via a subscription-based video service. This increase exists against a backdrop of a growing number of general interest or specialist platforms and offers.
So what is the current state of play with SVOD in France and who does this increasingly attractive practice concern?
People are becoming more aware of SVOD: 50% of French people can currently spontaneously name an SVOD service, which is 19 points higher than six months ago.
And thanks to the overall ergonomics of the platforms, attractive prices, the variety of content and how easy it is to find, SVOD users are both greater in number and more avid: Eight out of 10 SVOD users (i.e. over 10 million online users) watch programmes every week, compared with only 6% less than once a month.
“To make sure they don’t miss their favourite shows, SVOD users no longer hesitate to have different subscriptions”, says Marine Boulanger, Director of Médiamétrie’s Cinema & Entertainment department. Hence the reason for them using an average of 1.4 SVOD services simultaneously.
Further proof of their success is the time spent on these platforms: One in two SVOD users stated that they spent between one and two hours per day on them, while their biggest fans (28%) used them for between two and three hours. For these people, SVOD now plays a predominant role in their overall consumption of videos.
Regarding the various platforms’ user numbers, Netflix is forging way ahead, followed by Amazon Prime Video and Canalplay.
Series, which are very popular whatever their theme, are the star content of SVOD: comedy, action, thriller, science-fiction or fantasy. Series attract a young audience, including nine out of 10 SVOD users aged between 15 and 34. Also, viewers binge-watch series: almost 79% of SVOD users watched more than one episode consecutively during the past 12 months, regardless of whether they were from the same series.
Under 35-year-old women are best examples of this practice: they watch numerous series, sometimes simultaneously; they watch more than one episode successively; and they like to chat with family and friends about what they watched.
Regarding films, eclecticism also reigns: all genres are watched, although there are some more marked differences. Consumption is much less sustained than for series: 26% of SVOD users have watched films every day in the past 12 months: that’s half the amount for series (54%).
Film audiences tend to be older: 87% of people aged 35 and older watch films on SVOD platforms. Finally, SVOD is an ideally suited method for watching films that were not released in the cinema or missed when they were shown.
Money Heist, followed by 13 Reasons Why, then Game of Thrones, Stranger Things, Orange is the New Black, The Walking Dead and Grey’s Anatomy are the series that SVOD users were most attracted to during the last 12 months.
The ranking is clearly dominated by US series, except for the Spanish series Money Heist (La Casa de Papel in the original language) which will have left a lasting impression this year.
Local programmes are playing their hand well: Six out of 10 SVOD users attach importance to the French catalogue available on the platforms.