The number of homes in the United Kingdom with an online video subscription fell slightly in the last quarter. Although more than two-thirds of homes have such a service, it has yet to break 70%. A number of services saw small declines in the number of subscribers. The proportion of homes taking the lower cost tiers with advertising continues to rise, creating meaningful scale.
20 million homes in the United Kingdom had access to an online video subscription service in the last quarter of 2024. That is 68.3% of homes, down by 0.5% on the figure for the second quarter.
Netflix, Amazon, Discovery, Paramount, and NOW all saw small drops in subscriptions, but probably within the margin of sampling error. The numbers are based on the quarterly establishment survey commissioned by audience measurement organisation Barb.
Netflix leads the field, with 17.1 million homes, or 58.2% of homes, but that was down from 17.3 million the previous quarter. The number of homes on the lower cost tier with advertising reached 4.7 million of those accounts, or just over a quarter of its base, up from 3.8 million the previous quarter.
Amazon Prime Video, with 13.3 million homes, or 45.5% of homes, was also down slightly on the 13.4 million in previous quarter. Of those, 11.6 million, or 87% are on the advertising tier, which is up slightly on 11.5 million the previous quarter.
Disney+ is available to 7.6 million homes, or 26.0%, up from 7.5 million the previous quarter. 1.5 million of those were on the advertising tier, up from 1.2 million the previous quarter.
Discovery+ is in 3.1 million homes, that is 10.7% of homes, down slightly from 3.2 million.
Paramount+ in in 2.7 million homes, which is 9.1%, down slightly from 2.8 million.
Apple TV+ is in 2.6 million, or 8.9%, up from 2.5 million the quarter before.
NOW from Sky is in 2.0 million homes or 6.7%, down from 2.1 million.
While more than two-thirds of households have access to an online video subscription service, the percentage has been peaking at below 70%, or around 20 million homes. A number of services have seen flat or even slightly falling numbers, even Netflix. That might suggest that penetration has plateaued, with some subscribers shopping around and an increasing proportion taking lower cost tiers as they look for viewing value.