The number of homes in the United Kingdom with access to an online video subscription service fell by 1.7% to 19.08 million in the first quarter of 2023. It was the second consecutive quarterly fall. There were small reductions in the number of homes with Netflix, Amazon, and Disney+ services. However, NOW and Apple TV+ saw significant quarterly gains.

According to the quarterly Establishment Survey from the measurement organisation BARB, 67.4% of households have access to an online video subscription service. Interestingly, that form of words does not necessarily mean that they personally subscribe.

Of the 19.08 million homes with access to an online video subscription service, 16.96 million had access to Netflix. That was down by 1.1% from 17.15 million in the last quarter of 2022. That means that just under six out of ten homes in the United Kingdom has access to Netflix, which is still the most popular online video subscription service by far.

12.90 million homes had access to Amazon Prime Video, down by 1.7% from the previous quarter. That is around 45% of homes in the United Kingdom.

7.14 million homes had access to Disney+, down by 1.9% on the last quarter, in around a quarter of homes.

2.03 million homes had access to NOW, an increase of 8.0% on the previous quarter, albeit from a smaller base, at around 7% of homes. The number has been hovering around the two million mark for a couple of years. NOW, powered by Sky, offers monthly subscriptions to various packages, including entertainment, cinema, and sports, providing a flexible alternative to taking a full pay-television service from Sky.

1.91 million homes had access to Apple TV+, up 13% on the previous quarter.

After gaining until the start of 2022, the number of homes with access to an online video service has fallen by half a million. It appears to have plateaued at around two-thirds of households.

United Kingdom households with online video subscription services. Source: BARB /  informitv analysis

The second consecutive quarterly decline, which could be called a recession, appears to have been driven by the second quarterly fall in the number of homes with access to Netflix.

A factor in this could be the general economic situation, with inflation increasing the cost of living. As a result, some households may be questioning the value that they are getting from online video subscriptions.

www.barb.co.uk