More than 90% of Swedish households are paying for some form of media subscription.
A new analysis from the Stockholm-based consultancy Mediavision suggests there is no sign of saturation in paid media. Households pay the most for TV and streaming subscriptions.
In the first quarter of 2023, a household in Sweden paid an average of SEK 807 per month for media services. Over the course of the year this means housholds are paying almost SEK 10,000 on media. The figure includes both subscriptions and individually purchased media. The figures include Netflix subscriptions, audiobooks, Spotify, cinema tickets, gaming and newspapers.
Over the past year there has been a 5 per cent increase in household expenditure on the media.
“Despite these challenging times, we can see that households in Sweden stay loyal to their media purchases,” said Marie Nilsson, CEO, Mediavision. “And not only that, but the analysis also shows that households today pay for more media subscriptions than ever before. Just as we have noted during other economic downturns, media plays a very important role in our everyday lives. Maybe even to the extent that media services become extra important when other things have to be cut back.”
TV and video streaming are by far the largest categories, partially explained by an increase in the amount of services being taken.
This is partly explained by the fact that Swedish households have acquired more services. More than half of the average household’s media budget goes to TV and video streaming, after a growth of 9 percent in the last 12 months. However, payment for audiobooks and podcasts has also grown.