Newly published figures from Barb suggest that the number of UK homes with a paid video streaming service stands at a record high of 20m.
In addition to live TV channels, the broadcaster and advertiser-backed firm measures viewing on catch-up services such as iPlayer and on subscription streaming services such as Netflix and Disney+.
According to new figures from its Establishment Survey, 20m UK homes (68.7%) had access to a subscription service in the second quarter of the year (up from 19.5m/67.9% in Q1) while the number with two or more services reached 14m (48%) for the first time.
Barb’s figures also suggest that the number of UK homes on the Netflix ad tier continues to grow and now stands at 2.78m (9.5%), up from 2.12m (7.4%) in Q1, while an average of 820k homes have chosen the Disney+ ad tier.
Key figures:
- Netflix was in 17.1m homes (58.6%) in Q2 2024 – up from 16.7m (58%) in Q1
- Prime Video: 13.7m homes (46.7%) in Q2, up from 13m (45.3%) in Q1
- Disney+: 7.6m homes (26.1%) – flat compared to Q1
- Apple TV+: 2.4m homes (8.3%) – flat compared to Q1
- Paramount+: 2.8m homes (9.7%), up from 2.6m (9.1%)
- Discovery+: 3.2m homes (11.1%), up slightly from 3.1m (10.9%)
- NOW: 1.98m homes (6.8%), up from 1.82m (6.3%)
Barb says its figures only include those streaming services with a household penetration of more than 5% and notes that caution should be applied when comparing its sample-based numbers to audited numbers published by the services.
It says this is because the respondent’s recall of access to services is subject to some uncertainty, for example where the respondent isn’t the subscriber in the household, or the service is provided in a package with other services.
Doug Whelpdale, Head of Insight at Barb, said: “More than 20m UK homes have access to an SVOD service for the first time since Barb began collecting data in 2014. This figure is 1.25m higher than in Q2 2023 – a 6.6% increase. The number of homes with two or more services also tipped to 14m (48%) for the first time.
“Building on strong growth in Q1 all services on the tracker saw a quarterly increase in the number of homes with access. Netflix added just under 0.9m homes since Q4 2023, while Amazon gained almost 1.3m in the first half of 2024.
“The challenge will be to maintain this momentum. Q3 2024 will be a key test to see if the pure-play VOD services can avoid the plateaus of the last three years, but 2024 appears to be going well for these services so far.”