Between September to December 2021, the number of VOD-enabled households that subscribed to at least one video streaming service in Great Britain grew to 17.1 million, up almost 400.000 quarter on quarter, representing 59% of households, Kantar’s Entertainment on Demand study in Great Britain has revealed.
Furthermore, 6% of households in Great Britain took out a new video streaming subscription in the fourth quarter of 2021, slightly up on the same period in 2020. At the same time, 34% of subscription video on demand subscriptions taken out in the quarter were by households who were new to the SVOD category, with stacked subscribers (40%) now the largest single driver of new subscriptions.
Regarding content, Netflix’s “Squid Game” was the most enjoyed title in the fourth quarter, followed by Disney’s “Hawkeye”. Despite Prime Video taking a 45% share of new SVOD subscribers, big budget series “The Wheel of Time” was the only Prime Video title to make it into the top 10 most enjoyed titles across Great Britain, coming in at number five.
Netflix’s customer base essentially remained flat in Great Britain Q4 vs. Q3, gaining around 70.000 new subscribers, while Prime Video gained over 700.000 in the same period. In fact, Netflix’s share of new SVOD subscribers in the fourth quarter was closer to that of AppleTV+, Now or BritBox than it is to Disney+ or Prime Video.
“It’s clear from these latest findings that the British VOD market is maturing, and consumers are reaching a peak on the number of services they’re willing to take out. This is going to make market acquisition and churn rates harder for platforms to manage, especially as more entrants join the market. To make 2022 a success, they will therefore need to re-evaluate what strategies they can deploy to kickstart rapid growth again,” the report concluded.