What effect will the biggest wave of change in the video-on-demand (VOD) market since the launch of Netflix and Amazon Prime Video have in the UK?
Competition in the UK streaming market is heating up. Apple TV+ launched on November 1, 2019, the launch of Britbox is imminent with a beta testing phase currently in place, and Disney+ and other media owners are gearing up to launch streaming services in the UK in 2020.
What’s the current picture?
Right now, Netflix clearly dominates the subscription-VOD (SVOD) market in terms of usage. Netflix has a market share of 61% based on average daily SVOD usage, Amazon Prime Video is in second position with a 25% share, Now TV is in third position at 11% while Disney Life takes 2%. The figures are based on the latest findings in Goldmedia’s VOD-Ratings (*) data for October 2019.
Stranger Things was the most watched title with Season 3 driving the most viewing followed by Power. The Big Bang Theory was the third most watched title due to viewing across the seasons. Unbelievable, in its first season, took overall fourth position. Season 9 of Suits pushed this title to fifth position with the help of viewing of earlier seasons.
The top 10 analysis is based on viewing by all viewers in front of the screen covering all titles on SVOD platforms and includes viewing of all seasons of any title.
Co-viewing builds usage levels to these titles.
Analysis of the number of people in front of the screen by title reveals that Stranger Things, the top title this month, also had the highest number of viewers on average compared with other titles in the top 10.
Account sharing impacts market position
Analysis of how many people share an account, with family or friends for instance, reveals differences in levels of password sharing between providers. According to analysis of October 2019 data, there are 2.6 users for every Netflix account, compared to only 1.9 for Amazon Prime Video, which in part explains higher usage levels of Netflix. Now TV has 2.3 users per subscription.
What can we expect next?
With Apple TV+ now up and running and other new VOD platform providers lining up to launch we would expect to see a shift in the market shares. Britbox is planning to enter the market later this year, Disney+ is likely to start in early 2020 and NBC Universal has announced it is launching its streaming service Peacock in 2020. Meanwhile Sky and HBO have closed a new output deal which gives Sky continued access to HBO’s new production and content library.
The UK is currently facing the most significant change in the streaming market since the launch of Prime Video and Netflix five years ago. New business models may emerge, and the current market position will no doubt change. From the point of view of VOD providers in the UK, 2020 looks set to be an eventful year.
(*) The latest findings from VOD-Ratings are based on analysis of usage of UK SVOD content and providers in October 2019. VOD-Ratings is an analysis platform based on continuous surveys of usage of paid-for VOD content and has been developed by German consulting and research group Goldmedia.
VOD-Ratings has been measuring viewers and usage of the pay-VOD market in the UK since January 2019. Methodologically, the survey is based on a rolling online survey using the ‘day-after-recall method’. Up to 60,000 respondents aged 16+ are surveyed per year. Goldmedia developed VOD-Ratings in Germany where the service has been running since 2017.
