Worldwide lockdowns in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic are set to provide an 8.9% immediate lift to the SVOD market as consumers turn to such services to fill increased viewing hours and restrictions on cinema attendance, according to a recent study from Rethink Technology Research.
In five year's time, the market would have a value of $72.3 billion and 775.8 million subscribers. This growth will come at the expense of traditional pay TV services, and it will be largely a result of the pandemic, which according to the specialists will have long-lasting affects.
Moreover, the launch of streaming providers such as Disney+ and Apple TV+, which soon will be joined by HBO Max and Peacock, is going to play a huge role in this numbers. According to Rethink, “DTV players will be the nail in the coffin for traditional pay-TV approaches,” and says that “it is hard to see how viewers with two or more SVOD services can ever return to the conventional pay TV model”.
Analyzing specifically the Disney+ case, the research firm considers that the arrival of the platform on the global streaming stage could not have come at a more opportune time, and it projects that soon it will pass Amazon Prime Video viewership and close the gap on first-place Netflix towards the end of 2025.
“An opportunity to rip market share from the pay TV market is being handed to Disney, Netflix and Amazon on a plate,” the report says. Moreover, it indicates that once young viewers are locked into an SVOD library, in particular Disney’s, parents are going to be quite reluctant to cancel that service, “and when the prices are this low, the SVOD services become very sticky offerings”.