UK SVOD industry reaches 19 million homes

Data from the latest Establishment Survey from leading UK television audience measurement firm BARB has shown that the country’s subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) industry hit a key milestone in the fourth quarter of 2021, rising above 19 million for the first time.

The Establishment Survey aims to discover the characteristics of UK households, ensuring that its daily reporting of television audiences is representative of the whole population and the number of UK households with access to a SVOD service is one of the most-discussed metrics.

The Q4 2021 figure of a reach of 19.1 million homes, representing 66.9% of households, is up from 18.7 million homes (65.8%) in Q3 2021.

In terms of individual players, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and NOW TV all saw small quarterly gains, with Disney+ showing the largest increase in the number of homes with access to its service, up almost 5% on Q3 2021.

In all, 16.8 million homes had access to Netflix in Q4 2021, an increase from 16.7 million the previous quarter, while 12.6 million homes had access to Amazon Prime Video, a growth from 12.5 million in Q3 2021. 2.1 million homes had NOW TV, up from 2.0 million the previous quarter. 5.5 million homes had access to Disney+ in Q4 2021, up from 5.2 million in Q3.

BARB noted that with the overall growth lower than the aggregate growth for individual services, it’s clear that some homes have multiple SVOD subscriptions. Indeed, the number of homes that subscribe to two or more SVOD services rose to 12.4 million homes (43.3%) in Q4 2021, up from 12.3 million homes (43.1%) in Q3. Rapid TV News