ITVX and Apple+ are holding their own in Britain’s streaming market, with Netflix seeing the largest absolute losses in subscriber numbers as households reduce the number of subscriptions they hold.
Kantar’s latest Entertainment on Demand (EoD) data on the British streaming market has found the number of VOD-enable households that subscribed to at least one video streaming service in Great Britain fell by 144,000 on the quarter to 16.1 million. This compares to 16.91 million in Q1 2022 and 16.95 million in Q1 2021.
The total number of video streaming services being subscribed to by British households fell by 167,000 in the quarter to 29.44 million.
The Last of Us on NOW was the most enjoyed SVOD title, followed by Clarkson’s Farm on Prime Video and You on Netflix.
After the post-Christmas cull of subscriptions, the second quarter of the year looks to be more stable, with planned video cancellations dropping to 6.8% of subscription holders, a fall both year on year and quarter on quarter.
While Netflix struggled with holding subscribers, Amazon Prime was protected from the post-Christmas cull through its eco-system of entertainment services.
Dominic Sunnebo, Global Insight Director, Kantar, Worldpanel Division, comments, “It’s often the case that consumers take out Prime Membership with Amazon in Q4 for the fast and free delivery service and at the same time utilise the Prime Video service for entertainment over the Christmas holidays, before cutting back the next quarter. However, whilst Prime membership did drop back in Q1, the drop was limited to just a 1%-point drop, significantly lower than seen during the same period a year ago and importantly engagement with Prime Video among loyal Prime Members actually increased in Q1’23.”
AppleTV+ had a strong first quarter to 2023, seeing the second fastest growth in absolute subscriber numbers when measured against the previous quarter, only beaten by newly launched ITVX premium. AppleTV+ took #4 spot in terms of share of new subscribers over the quarter, with Slow Horses, an MI5 spy-based Drama, a top title driving new subscriber acquisition.
“Whist AppleTV+ continues to attract new subscribers, its growth prospects remain somewhat hamstrung until it can get a handle on churn, which remains well above its competitive set,” adds Sunnebo. “The investment in British content clearly resonates with the population and AppleTV+ subscribers rate the quality of programming on the service higher than any other platform. Apple’s challenge, however, is that it can’t produce new series fast enough for subscribers to feel like they’re getting sufficient value for money. While Apple scores top on quality on shows, it remained bottom on value for money, with the number 1 reason for cancellation being ‘not enough new TV shows.”
ITVX, and ITVX premium a relaunched service from ITV, replacing its existing ITVHub and ITVHub+ offering, had an impressive first quarter showing. ITVX noted a jump in weekly users in Q1’23 vs ITVHub in Q4’22, along with ITVX premium gaining 5% of new SVOD subscribers in the quarter with the incorporation of BritBox content.
The launch of Netflix cheaper ad supported price tier has helped it see a small pick-up in share of new subscribers. However, increased cancellations as its subscribers look for ways to save money diluted any significant benefit in terms of total subscriber numbers.
