With the top four OTT platforms controlling over 70% of subscriptions, SVOD stands out as the most concentrated audiovisual market segment in Europe.
According to the findings of a new report by the European Audiovisual Observatory, it is followed by followed by pay-TV with 72% of subscriptions cumulated by the top 20 pay-TV operators. Furthermore, even if under-represented in terms of volume (9% of TV channels and 3% of ODAS), public service broadcasters (PSBs) accounted for one third of global viewing consumption in Europe and almost all of them were offering at least one on-demand service at the end of 2020.
The report’s other key findings include that the top 100 audiovisual companies in Europe by operating audiovisual services revenues showed resilience to Covid-19 and M&A activity has been pushed up by the streaming rush and the pandemic crisis. In addition, US interests in the European audiovisual industry follow an upward trend and the top audiovisual players in Europe are eclectic as regards their portfolio of leading activities.
The report also notes that the cumulated operating AV services revenues of the top 100 audiovisual companies in Europe (+7.7% over 2016 at the end of 2020) grew slightly more than average inflation and the overall market.
The growth was driven solely by the private sector (+12% over the same period), with over 75% of the incremental revenues cumulatively delivered by pure SVOD players alone (Netflix, Amazon and DAZN, for which separate data on European operations was available).
By contrast, the revenues of the traditional players have stagnated, with businesses relying on advertising being more severely affected and PSBs weight dropping by 3% over the five-year period (down to 31% in 2020).
