Growth in the UK’s SVOD market has returned to more normal levels, reaching 826,000 in the second quarter.
This, according to Kantar’s Entertainment On Demand service, followed a surge of 6 million in the three months to April, which coincided with the early Covid-19 lockdown period and the launch of Disney+.
Kantar notes that Amazon Prime Video led in new sign ups securing 45% share over the quarter, with performance particularly strong amongst first time SVOD subscribers, driven up by free trial promotions.
Furthermore, 22% of new subscriptions were for Disney+, a fall from the 52% it achieved in its UK launch quarter.
Disney+ also saw a steep rise in lighter users, reflective of many UK schools returning back during Q2.
Overall subscription stacking edged down as consumers start to show signs of drop multiple platforms.
Netflix planned cancellation rate continues to fall, hitting just 2.2%. Netflix continues to dominate in customer advocacy, with a Net Promoter Score of +46, but Amazon Prime Video sees a big increase compared to the previous quarter, in a clear sign of progress in closing the gap with the market leader.
Kantar also notes that the largest contributor to new SVOD subscribers in the quarter were Gateway subscribers, those taking out an SVOD subscription for the first time, contrasting with Q1, where stacked subscribers, those taking incremental SVOD subscriptions, were the single largest group.
Commenting on the findings, Dominic Sunnebo, senior VP at Kantar, Worldpanel Division, said: “It is no surprise that Q2 20 didn’t see a repeat of the huge SVOD subscriber boost seen in the first quarter, which had the highly unusual combination of Disney+ launching and the UK in lockdown for the majority of the period. Amazon Prime took the highest share of new subscribers in the quarter, with the increase in overall online shopping as a result of Covid-19 measures, likely helping to make Prime membership, and it’s free delivery system, a more attractive proposition to British consumers.
“Whilst most platforms have seen usage fall slightly in the second quarter, as life in the UK edges back to normality, Disney+ in particular has seen a notable increase in lighter users, as schools begin to return back”.
Although Netflix continues to lead the way in overall customer advocacy rates, in Q2 there was seen a big increase in advocacy amongst Prime Video subscribers with Outlander, Little Fires Everywhere, Bosch and Star Trek Picard the key titles driving this performance.
