UK households with SVoD subscription pass 20 million mark, Barb data claims

UK households with access to a SVoD service has increased to 20.1 million homes

The number of UK households with access to a SVoD service increased in the third quarter of this year to 20.1 million homes, according to UK audience measurement firm Barb.

That estimated figure is up slightly from the 20m recorded in Q2. Streaming giant Netflix tops the list of platforms which the highest number of UK homes can access at 17.3m (59%), up from 17.1m in Q2.

Netflix also boosted the number of UK subscribers to its advertising tier by one million in the last quarter to 3.8m, climbing from Q2’s total of 2.78m.

While impressive, those ad-tier numbers are dwarfed by rival Prime Video. Some 86% of homes (11.5m) with access to the platform are subscribers to its ad tier, while overall subs stand at 13.4m, down from 13.7m in Q2. The success of the service’s ad tier, however, can partly be attributed to the fact that members of retail/delivery service Amazon Prime get access to Prime Video as part of their plan.

The Barb statistics, which are part of its Establishment Survey, indicate that the Disney+ ad tier averaged 1.2m, up from 820,000 homes in Q2, while 7.5m homes had access to the service, down incrementally from 7.6m in Q2.

Paramount+ and Discovery+’s overall numbers stalled at 2.8m and 3.2m respectively, showing no growth; while Apple TV+ grew to 2.5m (2.4m in Q2) and Now increased to 2.1m (1.98m in Q1).

Doug Whelpdale, head of insight, Barb, said: “After strong growth in Q1 and Q2 it was perhaps inevitable that the growth in homes accessing subscription VoD services would slow. The overall number of homes accessing at least one SVoD service remained above 20m, but the number with more than two services dipped to below 14m homes, suggesting viewers continue to remain wary of economic turbulence.

“This stability in overall subscriber numbers further demonstrates why services are exploring other avenues to continue revenue growth. While Amazon is likely to be the biggest ad tier for some time, it’s interesting to see the growth of the Netflix ad tier towards 4m homes and Disney+ past 1m homes.

“With darker evenings and the festive season on the horizon the number of ad tier homes for Netflix and Disney seems likely to grow.”